Microsoft Corp. has reported a record quarterly loss for their financial fourth quarter off the back of the write down of their mobile phone business, but still delivered some positives in terms of revenue growth among many divisions, including their cloud offerings.

By the numbers Microsoft booked revenue for the quarter of $22 billion, gross margin delivered a figure of $14.7 billion, and the company took a loss of $2.1 billion, or -$0.40 per share.

Net loss was larger again, coming in at $3.2 billion off the back of the $7.5 billion write-off (or what Microsoft refers to as a non-cash impairment charge) relating to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business, along with a further “restructuring charge” (in short, the cost of firing 18,000 odd workers) of $780 million.

Along with a charge of $160 million due to a prior restructuring plan, the combined costs relating to the changes and write-off totaled $8.4 billion or -$1.02 per share.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, despite the record loss, as operating revenue and profit per share would have came in at $6.4 billion and $0.62 respectively, ahead of market expectations that the figure would have been $0.58. The in theory figure compares to the same quarter of 2014 where Microsoft reported net income of $4.61 billion, $0.55 per share.

Every cloud does have a silver lining, and in Microsoft’s case it was their cloud services division that includes its Azure and Office 365 products, among others.

Commercial cloud revenue grew 88 percent compared to the same quarter of 2014, with the division now delivering an annualized run rate of over $8 billion.

Service products were up 4 percent, and dynamics revenue (Dynamics CRM) revenue grew 6 percent compared to Q4 2014.

While Microsoft’s legacy Windows division saw OEM revenue drop 22 percent year-on-year, there was bright news in the numbers for a number of Microsoft’s physical product divisions, in stark contrast to their complete screw up of the mobile phone division.

Revenue for Microsoft’s Surface tablet revenue grew a stunning 117 percent versus Q4 2014, booking $888 million for the quarter off the back of the launch of the Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3.

Xbox continues to hold its head high with revenue growth of 27 percent, based off of sales, Xbox Live transactions, and Microsoft’s delivery of first-party games.

Even the much maligned Bing got a positive look-in among the numbers, with search advertising revenue growing 21 percent year-on-year, with Microsoft claiming that the search engine now holds 20.3 percent market share, although who’s figures there basing that number on wasn’t specified.

“Our approach to investing in areas where we have differentiation and opportunity is paying off with Surface, Xbox, Bing, Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online all growing by at least double-digits,” Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a statement. “And the upcoming release of Windows 10 will create new opportunities for Microsoft and our ecosystem.”

Turn around

Putting aside the record loss, there’s no question when you look at the underlying numbers that we are seeing a turnaround at Microsoft under Satya Nadella, who replaced the previous buffoon who ran the company Steve Ballmer in February 2014.

The cloud services numbers, in particular, will be heartening for both the company and its investors, as unlike its disastrous foray into mobile, cloud services are high margin, and it’s clear Microsoft’s offerings are finding willing customers.

Despite the upsides in the figures, it was the record loss that stood out for investors, with Microsoft shares dropping 3.98 percent to $45.40 in after-hours trading.

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