Major bug in MS Excel 2007

Got a copy of Excel 2007 handy?

Try multiplying 850 by 77.1 - the answer should be 65535.

Excel 2007 thinks it's 100000.

Older versions of the spreadsheet - as well as the latest versions of the OpenOffice.org and Gnumeric packages - get it right.

The problem, replicated here at ZDNet UK, was reported a couple of days ago on the Microsoft Excel newsgroup , and looks like an elementary programming cock-up.

Excel is the mainstay numerical application of many finance houses, banks and other institutions. A basic mathematical problem like this is extremely serious, and the fact that it exists and has slipped through testing is a major embarrassment for Microsoft.

No two - or two to the power of sixteen - ways about it.

More on this as we add it up...