Cloud revenues double at Microsoft as the company closes in on $100bn annual revenues

Second quarter revenues leap by 14 per cent, driven by cloud, consoles and tablets

Software giant Microsoft has unveiled record revenues in its second quarter to the end of December - but not a new chief executive to replace the outgoing Steve Ballmer

The company posted revenues of $24.52bn, up 14 per cent compared to the same quarter a year earlier. Microsoft attributed the boost to sales of the new Xbox One console, which Microsoft says sold 3.9 million units into the channel in the run-up to Christmas, and higher revenues from the Surface tablet line, following discounts in September.

Sales of Surface tablets increased to $893m in the quarter, although the company did not differentiate between sales of first generation Surface tablets discounted to clear, and the new range of Surface devices. Reuters estimated that the company sold two million Surface tablets compared to Apple's iPad sales of more than 20 million.

However, it was in cloud computing that Microsoft claimed the largest jumps in revenue, up by more than 100 per cent, according to Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer. "Our commercial cloud services revenue grew more than 100% year-over-year, as customers are embracing Office 365, Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online, and making long-term commitments to the Microsoft platform," said Turner.

There was no news about the hunt for the company's new CEO either, after Microsoft was turned down by Ford CEO Alan Mulally, while Nokia's latest results effectively rule out Stephen Elop.