Microsoft Corp posted quarterly revenue and earnings on Thursday that easily topped analysts’ forecasts, marking a healthy start to a companywide overhaul it announced in July that should help the software giant transform into a devices and services company.
“Our devices and services transformation is progressing,” Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said in a statement with the company’s fiscal first-quarter results.
Ballmer said in August he would step down within 12 months and the search is on to find his successor.
Microsoft’s net income in the three months through Sept. 30 grew 17 percent to US$5.24 billion, or US$0.62 per share, from US$4.47 billion, or US$0.53 per share, a year ago. That beat the US$0.54 expected by analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue rose 16 percent to US$18.53 billion, also beating the US$17.79 billion analysts were expecting.
Microsoft’s revenue from its Surface tablets hit US$400 million, representing a gain in revenue and more than a doubling of unit sales from the quarter that ended in June, helped by a price cut to its slimmed down Surface RT model in July. Profitability in the division that houses Surface fell, mainly because the cost of making Surface tablets rose by US$645 million from a year ago.
It was the first time the company has broken out Surface results.
Microsoft investor relations director Lisa Nelson said the strategy behind Surface is to sell more devices, allowing the company to cover its fixed costs, while benefiting if users pay for other Microsoft services like the Skype Internet calling app or extra cloud storage space through SkyDrive.
A new partnership to outfit Best Buy stores with special displays dedicated to Microsoft wares should help boost sales, she said. Revenue from its flagship Windows operating system from manufacturing partners declined, while enterprise software business grew.
Commercial licensing is now by far Microsoft’s biggest reporting segment. Its revenue rose 7 percent to US$9.59 billion, while devices and consumer licensing revenue fell 7 percent to US$4.34 billion.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
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