Microsoft reported higher-than-expected revenue for its fiscal first quarter on Thursday, helped by stronger sales of its phones, Surface tablets and cloud-computing products. font size="2">The company's quarterly profit fell 13 percent, largely due to an expected $1.1 billion charge related to mass layoffs announced in July.

Including that charge, Microsoft reported profit of $4.5 billion, or 54 cents per share, compared with $5.2 billion, or 62 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 25 percent to $23.2 billion, helped by the phone business it bought from Nokia in April.

"We are innovating faster, engaging more deeply across the industry, and putting our customers at the center of everything we do, all of which positions Microsoft for future growth," said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

"We delivered a strong start to the year, with continued cloud momentum and meaningful progress across our device businesses," said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. "We will continue to invest in high-growth opportunities and drive efficiencies across the organization to deliver long-term shareholder value."

Microsoft said that Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers totaled more than 7 million, representing more than 25% sequential growth over the previous quarter.

Surface Pro 3 momentum drove Surface revenue of $908 million. In addition, new Windows consumer licensing programs drove positive unit growth while OEM non-Pro revenue declined 1%.

Total Xbox console sales were 2.4 million, growing 102%, and Xbox One launched in 28 new markets.

Windows Phone hardware revenue exceeded $2.6 billion, and Microsoft's commercial cloud revenue grew 128% driven by Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM.