Nadella told analysts on an earnings call that the operation had reached $10 billion in annual revenue and was “up more than 40%” year over year. In other words, it was outpacing every other major Microsoft product.
The remarks were revelatory. Nadella was known for reviving Microsoft, overseeing a fivefold expansion in market cap by that point in his seven years at the helm. That growth was largely based on turning Microsoft’s cloud business into a more serious threat to Amazon Web Services in a giant market.
By letting investors in on the enormity of Microsoft’s security business, Nadella was casually uncovering a powerful growth engine. Total revenue across the company was up just 14% from the prior year. And by way of comparison, Palo Alto Networks, one of the largest pure-play security software companies, delivered 21% revenue growth over roughly the same period, on a base smaller than $4 billion.
Comments are closed.