Microsoft will combine its financial results into three operating segments for purposes of financial reporting starting in its current fiscal year, down from its current total of six operating segments, the company announced this afternoon.
By lumping together revenue and operating income into fewer segments, the move could make it more difficult to for shareholders and analysts determine the specific financial results for different aspects of Microsoft’s business.
These are the three segments that the company says it will now use.
- The Productivity and Business Processes segment includes results from Office and Office 365 for commercial and consumer customers, as well as Dynamics and Dynamics CRM Online.
- The Intelligent Cloud segment includes results from public, private and hybrid server products and services such as Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center, Azure, and Enterprise Services.
- The More Personal Computing segment includes results from licensing of the Windows operating system, devices such as Surface and phones, gaming including Xbox consoles, and search.
The company says it will start using the new segments when it reports financial results for its fiscal 2016 first quarter on Oct. 22. The company will hold a conference call with analysts on Tuesday morning to discuss the changes, and says it will release retroactive financial results using the new segments in advance of the call.
