Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Services-Prepackaged Software
- Listed
- Nasdaq: MSFT
- Incorporated
- WA
- Headquarters
- Redmond, WA
- Fiscal year end
- Jun 30
Financials
FY2025- Revenue
- $281.7B
- Net income
- $101.8B
- Total assets
- $619.0B
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $281.7B | $101.8B | $619.0B |
| FY2024 | $245.1B | $88.1B | $512.2B |
| FY2023 | $211.9B | $72.4B | $412.0B |
| FY2021 | $168.1B | $61.3B | $333.8B |
| FY2020 | $143.0B | $44.3B | $301.3B |
| FY2019 | $125.8B | $39.2B | $286.6B |
Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
In depth
Strategic Fork
Microsoft's Xbox Gambit: The $4 Billion Bet on the Living Room
Microsoft's decision to enter the console market with Xbox in 2001 was one of the boldest hardware bets a software company ever made. After absorbing over $4 billion in early losses and a $1.15 billion warranty crisis, Xbox evolved into a gaming ecosystem with 30 million+ Game Pass subscribers and the $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Vault
Microsoft's Azure Cloud Platform Pivot
By 2014, Microsoft was a company in existential crisis despite reporting $86 billion in annual revenue.
The analyses
The Reversal · Decision Forks
From 'Linux Is a Cancer' to the World's Largest Open-Source Owner: Anatomy of Microsoft's Great Reversal
Microsoft spent a decade treating open source as an existential enemy. Then it bought GitHub, ran Linux at the heart of its cloud, and put a penguin on its merch. The U-turn wasn't a change of heart — it was a change of business model.
7 min
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
LinkedIn, GitHub, Azure: Each Microsoft Bet Was the On-Ramp to the Next
Microsoft paid $27B for LinkedIn and $7.5B for GitHub and built Azure into a $75B business. It reads like diversification. It was the opposite: each bet was the on-ramp to the next, a sequence of locks, not a spread of bets.
8 min
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
Microsoft Paid a 49.5% Premium for LinkedIn to Get a Map of Who Everyone Is at Work
Microsoft paid a 49.5% premium and over $16.6B in goodwill for LinkedIn in 2016. The press called it a Salesforce hedge that overpaid. The real prize was the one asset Office could never generate on its own: a graph of who everyone is at work.
8 min
The Adjacency Expansion · Growth & Portfolio
Game Pass Won the Revenue Bet and Lost the One That Mattered
Microsoft built a Netflix for games and hit nearly $5 billion a year by FY2025. Then it quietly stopped reporting subscribers — because growth stalled at 34 million, miles below its leaked 110-million-by-2030 dream, and the price hikes that protected the revenue started shrinking the user base.
8 min
The Money Machine · Business Model
Azure Was Built Under Ballmer. Nadella's Genius Was Wiring It Into Everything.
The myth says Nadella invented Azure. He didn't - it launched in 2010, four years before he was CEO. His real move was turning a PaaS side-experiment into a $105.4B segment by embracing the open source Microsoft had spent a decade fighting.
7 min
The Cannibalization Choice · Decision Forks
Windows Revenue Rose While Microsoft Grew to $281.7B — a Margin Upgrade Dressed as Disruption
The legend says Microsoft killed Windows to save itself with cloud. The filings disagree: Windows revenue rose. What shrank was its share of a company that grew to $281.7B. This wasn't sacrifice — it was a margin-mix upgrade dressed as disruption.
7 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
Ballmer Overrode Microsoft's Board to Buy Nokia; the $7.5 Billion Write-Off Took Two Years
The board opposed it. The future CEO voted no. A co-founder pushed back. Steve Ballmer bought Nokia anyway — and within two years Microsoft wrote off $7.5 billion. The real failure wasn't the phone. It was the room that couldn't stop one departing executive.
7 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
Microsoft's Windows Mobile Was Second Worldwide in 2007; the Antitrust Excuse Came Later
Bill Gates calls losing mobile his biggest mistake and blames the antitrust trial. But Windows Mobile was already second worldwide at 12% in 2007. The real loss came later - and the antitrust story is the most convenient excuse he ever told.
8 min
The Crisis Response · Decision Forks
Microsoft's Breakup Order Died When the Judge Called Gates 'Napoleonic' to Reporters
In June 2000 a federal judge ordered Microsoft split in two. Fourteen months later the breakup was vacated - not on the merits, but because the same judge talked to reporters, called Gates 'Napoleonic,' and handed Microsoft the procedural opening to keep its monopoly whole.
8 min
The Bet · Decision Forks
Microsoft Called Its OpenAI Bet 'Immaterial' for 18 Months. That Was the Whole Strategy.
Everyone calls it Microsoft's $13B OpenAI bet. But Microsoft never confirmed the number in any SEC filing until October 2024, only $11.6B has actually been funded, and a large slice isn't cash at all - it's prepaid Azure credits. The genius wasn't the wager. It was the structure.
8 min
The Ecosystem Lock-In · Moat & Competition
Teams Passed Slack in Daily Users by July 2019 — Before the EU Complaint Was Even Filed
The legend says Teams crushed Slack with a free bundle. But Teams passed Slack in daily users in July 2019—before Slack even filed its EU complaint. The bundle didn't win the race; it ended one Slack was already losing.
8 min
The Ecosystem Lock-In · Moat & Competition
Microsoft's Windows-Office Loop Outlived the Antitrust Trial — and It's Still Running
Everyone remembers the antitrust trial. But the 1998 DOJ case was about the browser - not Office. The loop that actually locked the world in, Windows feeding Office feeding Windows, was never broken up. It's still running today.
8 min
The Standards War · Moat & Competition
Microsoft Won on a $75,000 OS and a Licensing Clause IBM Left Unlocked
The legend says Microsoft beat the world on better software. The record says otherwise: a $75,000 OS it didn't write, one licensing clause IBM never bothered to lock down, and a monopoly a federal appeals court ruled was maintained illegally.
8 min
The Standards War · Moat & Competition
Microsoft Won the Browser War So Completely the Government Couldn't Save the Loser.
Internet Explorer went from under 20% to over 90% of the market in roughly six years. The weapon wasn't better code - it was Windows itself. And the lawsuit that proved it ended with Microsoft keeping everything.
8 min
The Turnaround · Decision Forks
Microsoft Was Winning the Last War in FY2014 — Nadella Made It Fight the Next One
The legend says Satya Nadella rescued a dying company. The financials say otherwise: in FY2014 Microsoft made $27.8 billion in operating income. The real turnaround wasn't a rescue from death — it was a company that was winning the last war learning to fight the next one.
8 min
The Turnaround · Decision Forks
Nadella Took Microsoft From $300B to $3 Trillion — on an Azure Foundation Ballmer Shipped
Microsoft went from ~$300B when Nadella took over in 2014 to over $3 trillion by 2024. The story says he saved a dying company. The inconvenient detail: Azure shipped four years before he became CEO, under the man everyone blames.
8 min