Microsoft hails 'solid' results

 

Gallery

By Alun Williams

Posted on 19 Jul 2002 at 12:56

Microsoft builds financial success on the platform of Windows XP - and declares a profit of $1.5bn for its last quarter.

In its latest financial results, Microsoft reports a ten per cent increase in sales, $7.25bn for the quarter ending June 30 compared with $6.58bn for the same three-month period last year. Net income was $1.53bn for the quarter.

While describing the current economic environment as 'challenging' and foreseeing 'continued uncertainty', Microsoft's chief financial officer John Connors hailed the role of Windows XP in the rosy results.

'The fourth quarter capped a great year for Microsoft,' said Connors, 'with solid revenue growth, successful product launches and our continued focus on managing costs. Robust customer demand for Windows XP and other desktop software enabled us to deliver strong operating results this quarter, in spite of continued uncertainty in the technology markets'

Taking the year as a whole, Microsoft announces sales totalling $28.4bn, a 12 per cent increase on last year. Net income for the year is $7.8bn, which compares with $7.35bn for 2001.

Breaking the results down by sector, desktop software revenue totalled $4.97bn for the quarter and $18.9bn for the year, an increase of 7 per cent on last year. Operating systems revenue - particularly figuring Windows XP - grew by 20 per cent and 16 per cent for the quarter and year, respectively. Microsoft also highlighted the 'robust' demand for Professional versions of Windows and the demand for Office by enterprise customers. Microsoft Project and Visio both achieved record sales in the fourth quarter.

Enterprise software and services revenue saw an increase of four per cent on the previous year. Enterprise revenues totalled $1.35bn for the fourth quarter, up 4 percent from the prior year. Microsoft highlighted revenue for the Windows Server family of products growing by 13 per cent the quarter and 10 percent for the full year, which - it claims - outperforms the underlying server hardware market by a wide margin. While name checking SQL Server for sales growth, Paul Flessner - the senior VP of Microsoft's .NET Enterprise Server Division was anticipating the releases of Windows .NET servers as a major generator of future revenue.

In terms of business outlook for the next quarter (ending 30 September), Microsoft anticipates sales around the $7bn mark, similar to this quarter, and operating income in the range of $3bn, again similar to this quarter.

You can find an audio Webcast of Microsoft's John Connors discussing the company performance here. The full figures can also be found on Microsoft's Web site.