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Oregon:
For the three months ended 30 September 2002, the Redmond-based
software maker had a profit of $2.73 billion, or 50 cents
a share, compared to net earnings of $1.28 billion, or
23 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.
The
results included one-time charges of $291 million, or
5 cents a share, related to weakness in Microsoft’s
investments. A year earlier, Microsoft wrote down $1.2
billion on investments. Microsoft’s fiscal first-quarter
revenue totalled $7.75 billion, up 27 per cent from $6.1
billion in sales a year ago.
The
company surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts
surveyed by Thomson First Call had a consensus estimate
of 43 cents a share on revenue of $7.1 billion.
Microsoft
cited a higher-than-expected enrolment in new, subscription-like
licensing plans that require companies to sign multiyear
agreements and pay annual fees in return for rights to
software upgrades. The new plans also eliminate many discounts
that companies could receive when they chose to upgrade.
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