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MICROSOFT SOARED TO record revenues in the last quarter, confounding Wall Street forecasts on the back of strong demand for Xbox consoles, Surface tablets and Internet “cloud” services.
The US-based technology titan reported net income of $6.56 billion on revenue that hit a record high of $24.52 billion in the quarter that ended December 31.
“Our Commercial segment continues to outpace the overall market, and our Devices and Consumer segment had a great holiday quarter,” said outgoing chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft shares climbed more than three per cent to $37.37 in after-market trades on the Nasdaq following release of the earnings figures.
“We delivered record revenue as demand for our business offerings remains high and we made strong progress in our Devices and Consumer segment,” Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood said in the earnings release.
Sales of Surface tablets more than doubled from the previous quarter to hit $893 million, and Microsoft sold 7.4 million Xbox videogame consoles, with 3.9 million of those being new-generation Xbox One.
Bing’s share of the Internet search market grew to 18.2 per cent while its share of the online search ad market grew about a third, according to Microsoft.
Meanwhile, money made from selling Windows software to computer makers slid by three per cent due to continue soft demand by consumers for personal computers, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft built its empire on packaged computer software but has been under pressure to adapt to lifestyles revolving around mobile devices and programs offered as services hosted as services in the Internet “cloud.”
Microsoft reported that cloud services to businesses and consumers posted strong growth.
“They’ve got this new strategy they have been talking about for a while now, devices plus services, and both grew very healthily,” Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler told AFP.
“This might have been a tipping-point quarter, at least in terms of that strategy.”
Change of strategy
The switch from licensing or selling packaged software to pinning revenue on hardware such as Surface tablets and subscriptions to services has upfront costs and the promise of long-term payoffs.
While Surface sales surged, the revenue was less than what Microsoft spent on the tablets and the same is true for Xbox.
“We have remained focused on price point and gross margin,” Hood said while discussing Surface during an earnings call.
“Think about it as a goal we have as we continue to innovate the line.”
And once Xbox consoles are in homes, Microsoft can make money on sales or rentals of digital entertainment content as well as from online services.
Microsoft is needing to spend money to make the pivot into the age of mobile devices and cloud services, according to Schadler.
Hood was confident that once Xbox consoles dominate in homes; Surface tablets take hold, and Microsoft cloud services win legions of devotees the will contribute to profit.
“It is a very different relationship that Microsoft is building with customers than ever before,” Schadler said.
“For the first time, Microsoft has to be very close to its customers.”
Late last year, Ballmer unexpectedly announced he would step down to clear the way for a successor who will help the company reinvent itself for the mobile Internet Age.
“Unless you’re constantly inventing something new, you’re old and tired,” Ballmer said at a conference in Rome in December. “Today we’re having to remake ourselves.”
Microsoft has indicated that the hunt for a new chief executive should be over early this year.
Analysts eagerly awaiting word of who Ballmer’s successor will be are also watching to see how active co-founder and board member Bill Gates will be in running the company.
Ballmer was a classmate and friend of Gates from their days at Harvard University in the 1970s.
He took over from Gates in 2000 but said he will step down by August 2014.
When Ballmer took over, Microsoft was the undisputed tech sector leader, and the world’s largest company in market value. But in recent years its core business has been shaken as consumers began to move from desktop and laptop PCs to mobile devices.
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Eight years! I highly doubt a woman carrying out the same offence over here would even do eight months
@David Garland:
The courts would turn her into the victim. A suspended sentence and all the help she “deserves”. We have enormous sympathy for the criminally minded here. Britain has a bit of that too though. But not as pervasive.
@David Garland: Ah no she would
@David Garland: knew it was England from reading the headline. Realistically probably wouldnt even get 8mths here
Sick and weird 100%
Why aren’t women who engage in sexual assaults on minors referred to as peadophiles?
@Da Vid: Are they not? That’s what she is, though. Why wouldn’t they be? Sounds more like a sociopath though. Pretty shocked to read that she was 21. I thought at first they were all 16.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: in all the headlines regarding this woman, none called her a peadophile. If it were a male who carried out these assaults, well then..
People these days are truly messed up,
@Mick Hannigan: people have always been messed up.
@Mick Hannigan: what? All 7.6bn of us…..drama queen!
@Paul Furey: You would after all these years commenting so regularly on the Journal that you might have upped your game a little and become a little more articulate….but sadly no, it seems.
@Ger Healy: lol
Shocking , those poors girls. I hope they get plenty of support and counselling and are able to deal with this so they can form healthy relationships in the future.
@LittleBee: So much for #TrustWomen
@Daniel Dunne: what’s the connection here?
Why did they let a boy stay over with young girls for a couple of days ,I’d be thinking that would be a no no in the first place , that girl doesn’t look like she’s all there either ,
Her IQ was certainly high enough to convince her victims that she was a boy.
@joanne healy: having an iq has nothing to do with being a predator, manipulation has everything to do with being a predator
She looks nothing like a young teenage boy, she looks like the deranged woman she is with a baseball cap. How was she able to fool their parents? and why was she having sleepovers anyway? sorry im not victim blaming, its just so bizzare. Stuff of nightmares, really.
Lols
Call her what she is. A pedophile.
@Chris Keogan: well said
There was a similar case in the UK a few years ago, remember watching a documentary about it, it was a teenage girl dressing up as a lad and assaulting other teen girls. Sick on so many levels!
Wtf
Kids should only be friends with kids they have become friends with in school or sport or what ever camp etc they attend . The friends they play or talk to online should be real friends first not on line friends first . We all must pay closer attention to who they are playing with , it’s not easy but it’s our job.
Most sexual assault is committed by people known by the person. Parents, relatives, neighbours, friends etc. The concept of ‘stranger danger’ misses the point of actually educating young people on how to spot harmful behaviours/grooming and manipulation. Healthy relationship education as well as safe social media usage is extremely useful.
Meeting people online can be great because you can connect with people with similar interests and hobbies that you might not meet in real life first. I made great friends online (and in real life) as a teenager. But teaching about internet safety and ensuring any meeting happens safely is also important.
She is a pedophile.
Keep your children close
Girl who identifies as a man is a pedo. Gimp!
@Paddy O Rourke: woman who sexually assaults multiple children.
@Alan McArdle: sick twisted world we live in.
@Paddy O Rourke: there is nothing mentioned about her identifying as a man. Just that she dressed up as one as part of her manipulation.
Looks like Gollum with a cap.
In Ireland she wouldn’t even get jail
She is a peadophile! And in my opinion they should be shot. Waster of tax payers money and no use to society. If that’s too strong then put them all on an island somewhere together and they can molest each other.
@Irisheyes: she is on an island the only problem is it is to close to ours.
@Irisheyes: Seems just to me. Rockall?
@Shane Cormac O’Duibhleachain: lol yeah, a smaller uninhabited island if you want me to be more pacific
She must be very WOKE
have your say