Microsoft has posted its earnings for this quarter and, for the first time since the company began, announced a loss, which totalled £313 million.
This doesn't exactly spell doom and gloom for the firm however, as a whopping £3.94 billion had been lost this quarter writing down the value of acquired advertising firm, aQuantive, after it failed to meet growth expectations for the business. This is all on the head of Microsoft's Online Services Division, however, following on from our earlier report on the matter, it has now been revealed that the division's acquisition of Skype, has played a key roll in enhancing the business connectivity of Microsoft Office 2013 and, lately the team appears to be on a bit of a roll.
Microsoft's quarterly revenue was £18.06 billion, up four per cent over the same period last year, with strong growth in server (13 per cent) and business markets (seven per cent), online services (eight per cent) and entertainment and devices (20 per cent), primarily thanks to the addition of Skype.
Given that Microsoft is only months away from the release of Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Office 2013, Microsoft Surface RT and Pro, the firm has a lot of big, potential money makers to look forward to. As Microsoft's Windows and Live division was, up until now, seeing the largest decline within the company, as Windows 7 sales dropped off; expect Microsoft's frown to turn upside-down come its next few quarterly filings.
For a full break-down of the firm's quarterly and end of year postings, head on over to the following link: http://www.microsoft.com//investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY12/Q4/default.aspx
