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Microsoft Revenue Up, Tries to Hook Third World
rocketjam writes "Microsoft reported record revenue for the last quarter Thursday due to increased sales of personal computers. Analysts were impressed with the company's overall performance, however they expressed concern about the continuing drop in unearned revenue, reflecting Microsoft's difficulty in signing up customers for long-term, sustainable business contracts. The $400 million drop in unearned revenue was less than the drop in the last quarter but still exceeded many analyst's expectations. The company's continuing problem in gaining long-term contracts is generally attributed to growing security concerns among customers and company's unwillingness to go along with Microsoft's 'Software Assurance' upgrade subscription plan." Also in the news: Microsoft is donating a pile of software to the United Nations -- retail value, $1 billion; wholesale value, maybe $1 million or so -- attempting to hook the Third World on Microsoft software.
Filthy yellowish-black decaying teeth with breath that smells like fresh dogshit. Even wealthy parasites like the royal family have awful rotting crap stained teeth. Why is that?
Is that old hag the queen mum still alive? I always hated that bitch.
Here's a copy of the story about Microsoft picking up a third world hooker in case you snot cork fuck faces slash dot the shit:
CNET News.com * CNET tech sites: Price comparisons * Product reviews * Tech news * Downloads * Site map 0 Click a Save Story icon to add up to 10 stories here for easy reference. Microsoft earnings top expectations Last modified: January 22, 2004, 2:10 PM PST By Ina Fried Staff Writer, CNET News.com update Buoyed by strong demand for PCs, Microsoft on Thursday reported better-than-expected quarterly sales and earnings, with the company noting that it sees signs of a recovery in corporate tech spending. For the three months ended Dec. 31, Microsoft earned $1.55 billion, or 14 cents per share, on record revenue of $10.15 billion. The earnings figure included 20 cents per share to cover the cost of stock-based compensation, including a 14-cent one-time charge for the cost of a program that allowed employees to sell their underwater stock options. In the same quarter a year earlier, Microsoft had earnings, after charges, of $1.87 billion, or 17 cents per share, on revenue of $8.54 billion. Excluding the compensation-related expenses, the company was expected to earn 30 cents a share on revenue of $9.74 billion, according to the average of estimates compiled by Thomson First Call. In October, Microsoft forecast revenue in the range of $9.7 billion to $9.8 billion, with earnings, excluding compensation charges, of about 30 cents. "Consumer and corporate demand for PCs continued to exceed our expectations and resulted in solid double-digit revenue growth for Windows XP and Office products," Microsoft CFO John Connors said in a statement. "In the second quarter, the overall corporate IT market also began to show signs of a recovery, with increased demand for both desktop and server products." Although Microsoft's most recent sales were ahead of forecasts, the company saw another drop in its level of unearned revenue, which is derived from long-term contracts. At the end of December, Microsoft had $7.85 billion in such collections, down from $8.25 billion at the end of September. The $400 million drop was steeper than some analysts had forecast, though not as steep as the drop the company saw in the prior quarter. Microsoft shares fell slightly in after-hours trading, changing hands recently at $27.49 on the Island ECN. In regular trading ahead of the earnings report, the shares closed at $28.01, down 29 cents, or slightly more than 1 percent. For the current quarter, Microsoft predicted per-share earnings of 23 cents or 24 cents, including 5 cents for stock-based compensation expenses, with revenue expected to be between $8.6 billion and $8.7 billion. That's ahead of current analyst expectations, which called for per-share earnings, before compensation expenses, of 27 cents and revenue of $8.4 billion. In the quarter ended in September, the company posted better-than-expected earnings but saw a steep drop in long-term contracts amid worries about security. Microsoft did hike its revenue forecast for the full year, projecting sales of between $35.6 billion and $35.9 billion, up from a previous estimate of $34.8 billion to $35.3 billion. The company also forecast an increase in per-share earnings, excluding the costs of stock-based compensation. The company now expects per-share earnings in the range of 82 cents or 83 cents, including 35 cents worth of stock-based compensation charges. In October, the company expected per-share earnings of between 86 cents and 88 cents--including 24 cents per share in stock compensation charges. While much of the company's sales growth came from an improved PC market, the company said it also saw some benefit from the weak dollar, which boosted revenue from Europe and Japan. Had the rates from the prior year's second quarter been in effect in the most recent quarter, Microsoft said sales would have been approximately $312 million lower. Microsoft said it expects PC sales to continue to grow. "For the full fiscal 2004, PC ship
Microsoft will be dead in 6 months.
That was, what, about 5 years ago?
MOD PARENT DOWN!! IMPERSONATION!
Look closely at his name! RAY_R_NOND? looks like raymond but spelled rayrnond. See it?
See the FAQ
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Children's Show Host/Actor Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan was found dead in his Vermont home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
ROFL! I couldn't help but find parent's post hilarious! Mod it up!
Well, Microsoft also 'knew' that infanticide was 'big' in China, but they let it happen. Does this mean that Microsoft condoned infanticide in China, or does it mean that they had as much chance of enforcing anti-baby-killing laws as they had anti-software-piracy laws?
Oooooh, now I've gotten them started. The slashbots will quote me out of context: "Microsoft is nothing but a bunch of baybee killers!!"
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