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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Microsoft barely beats Street, raises outlook thanks to Skype

By | October 20, 2011, 1:20pm PDT

Summary: Wall Street predictions continue to be on point this week as Microsoft matches on share earnings.

Next quarter earnings results could look very different for Microsoft following the recent acquisition of Skype. But for now, the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation turned out decent results.

Microsoft reported a net income of $5.74 billion, or 68 cents a share (statement) for the first fiscal quarter. Non-GAAP earnings were 68 cents a share on a revenue of $17.37 billion, up 7 percent from the same period of the prior year.

Wall Street was expecting of 68 cents a share on revenue of $17.23 billion.

See also: BNET: Microsoft Earnings Meet Expectations, But Glory Days Are Gone

In prepared remarks, Microsoft’s chief operating officer Kevin Turner attributed this quarter’s success to a spread of various products:

We had another strong quarter for Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync, and saw growing demand for our public and private cloud services including Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, and Windows Azure. With a great set of consumer products like Windows 7 PCs, Windows Phone 7.5, Xbox and Kinect, we are excited about the holiday buying season.

For the outlook, Microsoft is predicting a revenue of $28.6 billion to $29.2 billion at the end of second fiscal quarter, which is when Microsoft plans to start including the results stemming from the Skype purchase.

Wall Street is expecting 83 cents a share on revenue of $21.17 billion.

Key points:

  • Windows 8 was given a grand unveiling at the BUILD developer conference in September.
  • Windows Phone 7.5 released with many new features.
  • Xbox was the best-selling gaming console in the United States for the ninth consecutive month.
  • Bing is seeing greater integration across other Microsoft products, especially Xbox and Windows Phone.

By the numbers:

  • Windows and Windows Live Division revenue was $4.87 billion, up two percent over the prior period, which Microsoft asserts is “in line with the PC market.”
  • Over 450 million licenses for Windows 7 sold since launch.
  • Operating income was $7.20 billion, up 1 percent from the same time last year.
  • The Microsoft Business Division reported $5.62 billion in first quarter revenue.
  • Bing’s organic U.S. market share grew 350 basis points year-over-year to 14.7 percent, while Bing-powered U.S. market share — including Yahoo properties — accounted for approximately 27 percent.

Related:

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Topics

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: Microsoft barely beats Street, raises outlook thanks to Skype
rshol 22nd Oct
Share price of MSFT has indeed been stagnant over the last 3-4 years or more. 2.95% dividend yield is nothing to write home about either. T has a dividend yield of 5.9% and VZ is 5.23%.
Guess you'll have to put off the death of Microsoft for yet another quarter. Oh well sad
@rwalrond

LIES! All of it! This is the year of Linux! wink
0 Votes
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I hear Windows 8 will suck
toddybottom 20th Oct
@Cylon Centurion
So there is always next year. And if Windows 8 doesn't suck, I'm sure we'll hear that Windows 9 will suck. And if Windows 9 doesn't suck, I'm sure we'll hear that Windows 10 will suck.

Rinse.

Repeat.
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RE: Microsoft barely beats Street, raises outlook thanks to Skype
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 Updated - 20th Oct
@Cylon Centurion
Don't forget that with the release of Microsoft Windows (insert version here) is the opportunity for linux to take over!
@rwalrond they been dead for quite a while, they are just zombies sucking blood off the young.
0 Votes
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Why bring Google into this?
William Farrell 20th Oct
@tatiGmail
@tatiGmail - actually you are dead (as in brain) - and just sucking up air from the rest of us.
@tatiGmail Well then most companies should look into hiring zombies, clearly they're doing a good job racking in that money.
@William Farrell

+1

You actually made me LOL this morning.
@rwalrond

Looks like they might have bought a lemon in Skype unless they fix it's serious security vulnerabilities.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/78986
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RE: Microsoft barely beats Street, raises outlook thanks to Skype
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 20th Oct
At least they matched the estimates.
0 Votes
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Demise of MSFT greatly exaggerated.
MSFTWorshipper 20th Oct
@LoverockDavidson_ When was the last time MSFT had a quarter that beat estimates and APPL didnt'? Things are changing my friend.
@MSFTWorshipper
Well for that matter, Apple disappointed Wall Street with their recent iPad2 sales that doesn't mean Apple is doomed and at the same time neither Microsoft.
@LoverockDavidson_


Share price has gone nowhere in the last 10 years and it's going nowhere, invest your money elsewhere if you want growth.
The scale that these tech companies are operating at is just mind blowing. If my math is right, Microsoft beat the street by $140 million this quarter.

The amount of money they are over expectations in one quarter would be enough to run the last place I worked for almost 100 years with no revenue.

For Microsoft it amounts to a rounding error.
LOL! I love how he calls it decent results, when it's the best quarter one ever for Microsoft. Way to put a negative spin on great quarterly results.
LOL! I like how he calls Microsoft's best first quarter ever merely decent. Way to put a negative spin on fantastic quarterly results.
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What's really surreal...
TheWerewolf 20th Oct
This was a record breaking quarter for Microsoft - and their revenues were up 6% in a sluggish market in the middle of a market shift...

And most pundits (including the ones here at ZDNet) have been declaring Microsoft technically doomed - a shuffling zombie of a company too stupid to realise they're dead...

And even when shown to be wrong... the reaction is to colour the article "Microsoft BARELY beats street...".

I'm sure if this had been Apple, the title would have been 'Apple surprises street by beating their expectations...'
Still stagnant after all of these years .... should have put my money in the mattress.
@BrentRBrian
How are the dividends in that mattress fund?
Share price of MSFT has indeed been stagnant over the last 3-4 years or more. 2.95% dividend yield is nothing to write home about either. T has a dividend yield of 5.9% and VZ is 5.23%.

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