Microsoft turns in (some) good numbers

Stephen Withers
Friday, 23 April 2010 09:08

IT Industry - Listed Tech

The run of positive financial results from the IT industry continues with Microsoft reporting its best-ever third quarter.

Microsoft has reported third fiscal quarter revenue of $US14.5 billion. That's a year-on-year improvement of 6%, even after deferring the revenue relating to the Office 2010 technology guarantee.

"Windows 7 continues to be a growth engine, but we also saw strong growth in other areas like Bing search, Xbox Live and our emerging cloud services," said chief financial officer Peter Klein.

Thanks to strong Windows 7 sales, Microsoft's Windows revenue grew 28% year on year. The company claims more than 10% of all PCs are already running Windows 7.

Microsoft's online services might be growing, but so are that division's losses, which increased by 73% to $US713 million year-on-year.

"Our record third-quarter revenue along with continued rigour on cost management resulted in exceptional EPS growth," added Klein.

How exceptional was that growth? Try 36% for size - diluted earnings per share were $US0.45.