Microsoft Corp said on Thursday first-quarter net profit (for the July-June financial year), operating income and revenue increased 11 percent from a year ago, boosted partly by surging demand for its Xbox 360 game device.
The double-digit results beat market expectations and came at the high end of company forecasts.
"It was a very good start to what we are expecting to be an excellent year," Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell said during a conference call with financial analysts. "We continue to expect full-year double-digit revenue growth in 2007."
Demand for Microsoft server and tools software was "particularly strong" and the company's coffers benefited from the increasing popularity of the Xbox 360 video gaming console and related products, Liddell said.
The Redmond, Washington-based software colossus reported net profit for the first three months of its business year of US$3.48 billion, or US$0.35 per share.
Operating income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was US$4.47 billion and revenue totaled US$10.81 billion.
Net income for the same period last year was US$3.14 billion, or US$0.29 per share.
Wall Street analysts had forecast Microsoft's quarterly profit would be US$0.31 per share on revenue of US$10.75 billion.
Revenue in the Entertainment and Devices Division soared 70 percent, driven by demand for Xbox 360 consoles, software, peripherals and Xbox Live.
Microsoft has sold 6 million Xbox Live systems since the console was released a year ago and Liddell predicted the number would jump to 10 million by the end of the year-end holiday shopping season.
The company expected Xbox division sales to soar 33 percent in the coming financial year.
Microsoft was also seeing online advertising revenue increase quarterly and was on course to reclaim all the ground it lost after shifting to a new ad platform last year, according to Liddell.
Microsoft reduced its earnings expectations for the fiscal second quarter ending Dec. 31 by US$1.5 billion to reflect a likely drop in revenue due to the delayed release of its new Vista operating system, which is due out in January.
Liddell raised the company's revenue expectations for the fiscal year from US$50 billion to US$50.9 billion, however, based on strong Xbox sales and the planned new releases of Windows and Office.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)
The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor. Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished. On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed
RSS