Microsoft earnings rise as pandemic boosts cloud computing, Xbox sales

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Tuesday reported its Azure cloud computing services grew 50%, the second quarter of acceleration in a business that had begun to slow as the global pandemic benefited the software maker's investment on working and learning from home.The company's shares rose 5% in extended trading after gaining about 41% in 2020 as COVID-19 shifted computing to areas where the software maker has bet big. It also saw a surprise recovery in sales on the LinkedIn professional social network and navigated a chip shortage that had threaten to hold back its Xbox business.The shift to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated enterprises' switch to cloud-based computing, benefiting Microsoft and rivals such as Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) cloud unit and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google Cloud. On a conference call with investors,...