Microsoft Delivers Strong Growth and Includes a Sunny Forecast
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The companyâs strong quarterly results and optimistic outlook suggests that a weakening economy will not slow it down.
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Microsoft said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose 11%, beating analysts' expectations, as the company benefited from stronger-than-expected computer and server shipments.
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Microsoft  is expected to  report a sharp rise in quarterly profit this week, boosted by  surging revenue as strong computer sales drive demand for its  Windows operating system and Office software.
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Amid strong quarterly earnings, Microsoft said it is seeing signs of strength in enterprise spending, particularly in software.
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Stock index futures rose on Friday, buoyed by strong earnings from Microsoft Corp and as a speedy agreement on a U.S. economic stimulus package helped boost investor confidence.
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Microsoft Corp  signaled  confidence to a rattled stock market by raising its full-year  profit outlook above Wall Street targets and reporting a 79  percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday.
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Microsoft posted a rise in quarterly profit Thursday, boosted by healthy demand for personal computers loaded with its Windows operating system and strong sales of its "Halo 3" video game.
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Microsoft Corp  posted a rise  in quarterly profit on Thursday, boosted by healthy demand for  personal computers loaded with its Windows operating system and  strong sales of its "Halo 3" video game.
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Despite underwhelming consumers and being&#160;snubbed by enterprises,&#160;Windows Vista&#39;s numbers keep growing, with Microsoft&#160; saying Thursday that it has now shipped 88 million copies of the operating system, almost double the number of copies of XP in the same amount of time at its launch.In late July, Microsoft said it had hit the&#160;60 million shipment mark with Vista.Microsoft had previously said that it had&#160;shipped 20 million copies of Vista&#160;in its first month and 40 million copies of Vista in the first 100 days.Microsoft credited Vista with helping it&#160;beat Wall Street expectations&#160;and raise financial projections for the rest of the year. The company reported revenue of $13.76 billion for the first quarter ended Sept. 30, up 27 percent from the same quarter in 2006.Revenue in its client segment, which includes all consumer versions of Windows, was $4.14 billion, edging out the $4.11 billion in revenue from the Microsoft Business Division where Office is produced.CFO Chris Liddell credited strong sales in emerging markets, due in part to anti-piracy and legalization programs there.Client revenues, however, did not top those of the first calendar quarter this year, when Vista was officially launched. Revenues at that time were $5.32 billion.Three-quarters of the copies sold of Vista were higher-priced &#39;premium&#39; versions, compared to 59 percent of the copies of Windows -- primarily XP -- available a year ago.The 88 million figure mostly includes Vista-installed PCs bought by consumers and small businesses, as well as packaged copies of Vista sold in stores or online.It does exclude the tens of millions of Windows corporate volume licenses. There, many enterprises continue to hold off on deploying Vista, acknowledged CFO Chris Liddell, though he expects them to start deploying it when Vista Service Pack 1&#39;s arrival in the first quarter of next year.Nevertheless, revenue from companies renewing their volume licenses for Windows, which gives them the right to upgrade to Vista, was up 27 percent.Other highlights from the statistics:-- Unit sales of Windows Server&#39;s premium enterprise edition were up 35 percent year-over-year;-- A release candidate for Windows Server 2008 has been downloaded more than one million times in its first month;-- Unit and revenue growth of SQL Server were both up more than 15 percent;-- Halo 3 generated $330 million in revenue;-- Xbox 360 console unit sales increased 90 percent, driven by a price cut in August and Halo 3-related demand;-- Client revenues, including those for Vista, are expected to grow 62-64 percent year-over-year in the current fiscal Q2, or 13-14 percent excluding certain revenue deferrals in the prior year;-- Microsoft Business Division revenues, including those for Office, are expected to grow 15-16 percent in Q2 after normalizing for impact of technology guarantees and pre-shipment deferrals in the prior year;-- A beta version of Office Communications Server has been downloaded 80,000 times;-- There are 10,000 customers in the Customer Technical Preview (CTP) program for PerformancePoint Server, its new business intelligence offering.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Microsoft  reported a rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, boosted by strong sales of its Windows operating system, and the company raised its full-year profit outlook, sending its shares up 4 percent.
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The company impresses the Street with strong earnings, an optimistic outlook, and a toehold abroad.
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Strong sales of new and old products alike led Microsoft to its fastest first-quarter growth in seven years, with the company reporting growth in all five business segments and both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) that beat analyst expectations.
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Microsoft Corp  lifted its full-year estimates and posted a 23 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, topping investor expectations on strong demand for "Halo 3" and Windows Vista, and sending its shares up 11 percent.
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Microsoft said last week that its first-quarter net income rose 11% and revenue 12% because of strong server-software demand and steady sales of PCs that run its products.
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Microsoft Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose 11 percent, beating analysts' expectations, as the company benefited from stronger-than-expected computer and server shipments.
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Microsoft reported surprisingly strong quarterly profits and sales growth in its core software products, sending its stock up 12 percent in after-hours trading.
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Microsoft  signaled confidence to a rattled stock market by raising its full-year earnings outlook above Wall Street targets and reporting a 79 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday.