Microsoft steigert Umsatz und Gewinn

Pressemitteilung REDMOND, Wash. — April 18, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of .25 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2002, a 13 percent increase over the .40 billion reported in the prior year. Operating income totaled .30 billion compared to .00 billion in the prior year. Net income for the quarter was .74 billion, which includes an 7 million after-tax gain on the sale of Expedia and an 6 million after-tax charge related to investment impairments. Diluted earnings per share for the March 2002 quarter were {long}.49, including a {long}.15 gain on the sale of Expedia and {long}.14 investment impairment charge as noted above. “We delivered another quarter of solid revenue growth and operating results that exceeded our expectations. Desktop platform sales have been excellent on the strength of Windows® XP – both in the enterprise and in the home. We took another big bite out of costs this quarter, with single-digit operating expense growth driving costs down and efficiency up throughout the entire organization,” said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “While we look forward to slightly improved PC growth rates for the next quarter, our expectations for enterprise IT spending levels continue to be quite modest.” Robust sales of the Windows XP operating system drove strong desktop platforms revenue growth of 11 percent. The business version of Windows accounted for 47 percent of all operating systems sold this quarter, up from 35 percent in the prior year. “This quarter Windows XP shipped on nearly 60 percent of all new PCs, which represents a faster penetration than any of our previous operating systems. Windows XP continues to drive excitement for the personal computer during a challenging time for the industry as a whole,” said Jim Allchin, group vice president of the Platforms Division at Microsoft. “Looking ahead, we are incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity to deliver new digital experiences and innovative technologies around the personal computer.” On Feb. 13, 2002, Microsoft launched Visual Studio® .NET and the .NET Framework, the culmination of more than four years of work to create a new software development platform. In less than two months since the launch, more than 1 million units of Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework have shipped to developers worldwide. “We are seeing tremendous momentum with customers and industry partners, who are using the .NET Platform to take advantage of new opportunities that result from developing and consuming Web services,” said Eric Rudder, senior vice president of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft. “Companies like Compaq, Deutsche Telekom, Ingram Micro, L’Oreal, Merrill Lynch and Xerox are seeing real and significant business value, productivity gains, and return on investment through .NET today.” Following a record-breaking launch in North America in November 2001, Xbox™ continued its worldwide rollout during the quarter with launches in Japan, Europe and Australia. Also during the quarter, “Halo: Combat Evolved” for Xbox, the enormously popular action-adventure game, achieved the distinction of reaching 1 million unit sales faster than any next-generation console game. Microsoft also announced that effective April 26, 2002, prices for Xbox in Europe and Australia will be reduced to €299/£199 and A9, respectively. “The new prices in Europe and Australia make Xbox more accessible to a broader set of gamers, consistent with our long-term strategy to build an ecosystem around Xbox where our retail partners, third-party game publishers and gamers all thrive,” said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer. “<í>With a built-in hard drive and Ethernet port, Xbox is the most powerful video game system ever developed and now an even better value.”