Microsoft’s Profit Down in Last Quarter
Microsoft’s profit down in last quarter
LOS ANGELES, April 22 (Xinhua) — Microsoft Corp. reported on Thursday a profit of 1.32 billion US dollars for its third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2004, down 38 percent from the 2.14 billion dollars for same quarter a year earlier.
Microsoft, the world largest software company, stressed that the results include stock-based pre-tax compensation expense of 748 million dollars and legal charges of 2.53 billion dollars, related to its 1.95 billion dollar settlement with the Sun Microsystems Inc.
Microsoft said its revenue for the third quarter increased to 9. 18 billion dollars, up 17 percent from the 7.84 billion dollars for the same period in the prior year.
“All of our businesses met or exceeded our expectations this quarter with the client, Information Worker and Server and Tools businesses growing a combined 17 percent,” said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft.
According to Microsoft’s report, its Information Worker software revenue grew 18 percent over the prior year, its Office software experienced strong sales across all customer segments, while its Server and Tools software grew 19 percent.
The company said its Internet portal service, MSN, registered a 16 percent increase in revenue from the same quarter of last year, driven by continued growing of advertising business, which increased 43 percent in revenue during the quarter.
Microsoft claims that its MSN network has 350 million users, 170 million active email users and 120 million messenger users worldwide on a monthly basis.
The company said it expects its revenue for the next quarter ending June 30, 2004 to be in the range of 8.9 billion and 9.0 billion dollars, with operating income in the range of 2.8 billion and 2.9 billion dollars.
Microsoft also predicted that its revenue for its next fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, would be in the range of 37.8 billion and 38.2 billion dollars, with operating income in the range of 15. 9 billion and 16.3 billion dollars.