Microsoft to double ad revenue: CEO
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Will double its advertising revenue in five years as it ramps up its search services to rival Web search leader Google Inc. BELLEVUE: Microsoft Corp.
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Microsoft Corp. on Thursday said its quarterly profit climbed as revenue rose 12 percent, driven by demand for the company's core software products from businesses and higher sales of personal computers and servers.
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Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers said today that his company plans to offer twice as many new products this year as ever before.
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Microsoft beat Wall Street expectations for both revenue and EPS (earnings per share) for its fiscal 2008 second quarter, attributing its strong quarter to sales of core client products, such as Windows Vista and Office 2007, as well as Exchange and SharePoint server software.For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Microsoft reported revenue of $16.37 billion, an increase of 30 percent year over year and a number that solidly beat the $15.95 billion in revenue that Thomson Financial analysts had estimated. Last year for the same period, Microsoft reported $12.54 billion in revenue.Diluted earnings per share were $0.50, an increase of 92 percent over the $0.27 in EPS reported last year, and $0.04 higher than Thomson Financial estimates of $0.46. Operating income for the quarter was $6.48 billion, an increase of 92 percent from the $3.47 billion reported for the same period last year.Microsoft&#39;s year-over-year percentage growth is higher than normal due to a deferral of $1.64 billion in revenue and operating income, as well as $0.11 of diluted earnings per share from the second to the third quarter of fiscal 2007. This deferred revenue contributed to the higher-than-average second-quarter percentage growth. Without these deferrals, second-quarter growth rates for revenue, operating income and earnings per share would be 15 percent, 27 percent and 32 percent, respectively, for the quarter reported Thursday.Ahead of Microsoft&#39;s announcement, analysts had expected the company to report a strong quarter even among economic uncertainty and fears that the U.S. economy is entering a recession.Microsoft&#39;s client business, on sales of Windows Vista, was especially strong in the quarter, with $4.34 billion in revenue compared to $2.59 billion in revenue a year ago. According to Microsoft, its client business has grown 20 percent on average since Windows Vista was made available nearly a year ago, and the company believes Vista began hitting its stride for adoption among customers and partners in the second quarter. According to Microsoft, it has sold more than 100 million licenses for Vista.Looking ahead to the next quarter, which ends March 31, Microsoft said Thursday that it expects revenue in the range of $14.3 billion to $14.6 billion; operating income in the range of $5.6 billion to $5.7 billion; and diluted earnings per share in the range of $0.43 to $0.45.For the full fiscal year ending June 30, Microsoft expects revenue in the range of $59.9 billion to $60.5 billion; operating income in the range of $24.2 billion to $24.4 billion; and diluted EPS in the range of $1.85 to $1.88.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company hopes to squeeze more revenue from countries where software piracy is rampant by dialing up anti-piracy technology in Vista.
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Microsoft said Thursday that it had surpassed $50 billion in annual revenue, while saying quarterly profits were up seven percent on brisk Vista sales.
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Microsoft posted its first-quarter 2005 financial results last week, reporting revenue of US$9.19 billion and net income of $2.9 billion.
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Watching Google Inc. rake in advertising revenue "was a wake-up call within Microsoft," the company's top technical executive, Ray Ozzie, said Tuesday. But he said Microsoft plans to do more than simply mimic Google by rolling out Web-based versions of desktop programs or following its particular search and advertising model.
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Amid strong PC demand from consumers and businesses, Microsoft reported on Thursday quarterly revenue and earnings that topped the company&#39;s earlier expectations.
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Microsoft Corp. said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter earnings more than doubled, beating Wall Street estimates with strong sales of server software and its Halo 2 video game.
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Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O, the world's  largest software maker, on Thursday reported that its quarterly  profit doubled on stronger demand for personal computers and  video games as well as lower costs.
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Microsoft Corp.  sees the shift  by business organizations to Web-based phone systems running on  its software to generate "billions" of dollars in revenue for  the company, a top executive said on Tuesday.
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Microsoft Entertainment & Devices chief Robbie Bach says he expects the Xbox 360 to topple revenue records in 2008, given total spending on 360 products last year.
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InfoWorld - Despite its CEO&#39;s claims that Microsoft eventually will trump Google to be number one in online search revenue, the company&#39;s online business is &quot;massively underperforming&quot; against the competition, according to a leading financial analyst.
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SanDisk Corp. , the world's  top maker of flash memory storage cards, plans to more than  double its global retail presence as demand for its products  rises, its co-founder said on Wednesday.
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First-day sales of Microsoft Corp.'s  new video game "Halo 2" will reach &#36;100 million, a senior Microsoft games executive said on Tuesday.
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Bill Gates is about to announce a new step in Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) home-entertainment strategy.