FX.co ★ Who benefited the most in the pandemic: Microsoft, Apple, or Facebook?

It is clear that the pandemic plays a vital role in the technology sector, since the significant sales growth is largely due to the increased demand for video games during the pandemic. An important role is also played by the accelerated implementation of cloud computing services. Healthcare entrepreneurship, which continues to master new digital tools during the crisis, also contributes to the growth.

Microsoft

Microsoft, one of the largest multinational companies, released its sales data for the last 4 months, which showed record values. In view of this, the price of company shares increased by 4%, the value of which has surged by around 40% throughout the previous year. Today, Microsoft securities are valued at 232.33 per unit.

Its net income in the second fiscal quarter rose by more than 30%, eventually reaching a figure of $15.5 billion. At the same time, sales increased by 17%, that was, to $43.1 billion. These figures exceeded the expectations of Wall Street experts, who predicted $12.6 billion and $40.2 billion, respectively.

Moreover, the company's management expects continued profit growth in the current quarter. Sales are expected to reach $40.35 - $41.25 billion, while the growth in the field of video games in the annual comparison should result in 40%. Surface laptops' sales also promise to nearly double.

Microsoft management relies on cloud computing, thereby predicting a multi-year annual increase in sales. Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform, has already shown rapid sales growth. Despite the fact that there was a clear slowdown in the growth rate of this service before the pandemic, the massive transition to remote work did its job: the slowdown was replaced by growth. Azure sales for the fourth quarter of 2020 increased by 50%, against the growth of 48% in the previous quarter.

Video games are also one of the significant source of profit as viewed by Microsoft. Last year, the company acquired the parent company of the popular Doom video game franchise, ZeniMax Media. The total revenue from Xbox content and services rose 40% last quarter, supported by the launch of two new video game consoles that compete with Sony Corp's popular PlayStation 5. Microsoft's total revenue in the video game segment grew by 51%, and total revenue for video games and laptops rose to $15.1 billion, which exceeded the $14.6 billion received from the cloud services segment.

Windows software licensing revenue increased by 1%.

The social network for business contacts LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, also increased the company's profit by as much as 23%.

Apple

During the previous year, Apple shares were up about 80%. This is understandable, as people began to actively buy Macs or iPads while in quarantine. Yesterday, Apple reported its revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, which released record figures: profit increased by 21% to $ 111.4 billion (from $91.8 billion). As a result, net income per share rose by 35%, equivalent to $ 1.68. It should be noted that the value of Apple securities surged by 84% last year, despite the apparent decline in other economic sectors due to COVID-19.

Today, the company's securities can be purchased for $142.06 per share. This was largely due to the increased demand of users for various gadgets in the conditions of remote working, as well as the high popularity of the latest iPhone model.

In addition, the results of the fourth quarter of 2020 showed that Apple became the largest seller of smartphones in the world, with a record share of 23.4% during the fourth quarter. The current distribution of market shares by smartphone sales is as follows: Apple (23.4%), Samsung (19.1%), Xiaomi (11.2%), OPPO (8.8%), and Huawei (8.4%).

Facebook

The company that owns the world's largest social network, Facebook, reported a profit growth and pleased shareholders and investors with its record values. The increase in profit is due to large-scale advertising campaigns of online retailers during the holidays. The company's total revenue in the fourth quarter increased by 33%, that was, to $28.07 billion (from $21.08 billion a year earlier). It is worth noting that this indicator consists almost entirely of ad sales. Analysts had forecast growth, but their assumptions about quarterly revenue were limited to $26.44 billion. The net income for the quarter was $11.22 billion, or $3.88 per share. Last year, the same figure was just $7.35 billion, or $2.56 per share. Today, the company's securities can be purchased for $272.14 per share.

In fact, the active number of Facebook users per month grew by 12%, namely, to 2.80 billion.