Microsoft's profit rises 3.6 percent as cloud demand soars

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp reported a 3.6 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, powered by a surge in demand for the company's flagship cloud platform Azure. The company's shares were marginally higher at $64.34 in after-hours trading. Since taking charge in 2014, Chief Executive Satya Nadella has steered the company toward cloud services and mobile applications away from its slowing traditional software business. The company's "Intelligent Cloud" business, which includes Azure, rose 8 p