What's going on?

Facebook, Google and Snapchat might dominate your time outside of the office, but Microsoft still dominates a lot of people�s work environment – and it looks like it might stay that way. Microsoft reported financial results on Tuesday that showed good growth in the business-facing products that it thinks are crucial to its future success.

What does this mean?

You probably know the suite of products that comprises Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.). Well, imagine the Office suite that you grew up with gets transformed into one that involves Skype calls and cloud storage (and, soon, a LinkedIn integration). That�s essentially Microsoft�s plan for growth: to build on its historic strengths and incorporate all these new tools into a market-leading business-focused software company.



Office 365 (which is the �new� Office) experienced revenue growth of more than 50% (in the past year). Azure, which is its cloud business, saw its revenue more than double. The growth is giving investors confidence that Microsoft is transitioning well as the tech industry evolves � and that helped send the stock up more than 3%.

Why should I care?

For the stock: Microsoft appears to be figuring out a way to grow again.

Microsoft�s revenue actually fell versus a year ago – but investors didn�t seem to care. The fact that its �new� businesses are growing so nicely overshadowed the decline of its �old� businesses (like its Windows product and mobile phones). Investors are rewarding Microsoft�s new strategy by sending its stock back towards its all-time high – which was set in 1999!



The bigger picture: The strength of the US dollar is starting to become a concern again.

Microsoft would have made more money if the US dollar hadn�t strengthened so much in the past year. That�s because it gets a lot of income from overseas customers � and, when the dollar goes up in value, that income is worth less when translated back to dollars. The US dollar hit a 4-month high on Tuesday versus a collection of other major currencies � and that has some investors worried about future growth for companies with significant international sales.