Microsoft posted a 65 per cent increase in its quarterly profits easily beating Wall Street expectations. Buoyant sales of Windows Vista, the latest OS from the company, were the main reason behind company’s good performance.
The software giant posted net profits of $4.93 billion in the three months ending on March 31. This figure stood at $2.98 billion in the corresponding period last year. The profits amounted to a healthy 50 cents per share topping Wall Street’s expectations by 4 cents. Sales of Office 2007 and upgrade coupons for the operating system issued over the holidays also played a major role in inflating the revenue figures.
The revenue figures for third quarter included $1 billion to $1.5 billion of deferred revenues carried over from the previous quarter relating to a Windows guarantee to upgrade PC buyers to Vista.
Revenue for fiscal third quarter rose 32 per cent to $14.4 billion, again beating analysts’ expectations which stood at $13.89 billion.
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the “excellent quarter” was due to better-than-expected sales of Vista and Office. Microsoft’s ‘client’ division - which is responsible for Windows - brought home $5.27 billion in sales, a 67 per cent improvement from last year.
Incidentally, Microsoft’s “entertainment and devices division,” which includes the Xbox 360 game console and the Zune music player, posted a 21 percent sales drop to $929 million in an expected post-holiday slump.
Shares of Microsoft rose $1.20 (4.1 per cent) after the results were released on Thursday.
These results are sure to quell any doubts raised against Vista’s sales potential.
Source: BBC
