Microsoft bores us with quarterly earnings - Earns yet more money

By John Daly @ Friday, July 18, 2008 12:00 PM

Section - Business/Financials

Everyone's favourite monopolist and bashing object Microsoft managed to earn a lot of money in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008, as well as in the full year.

OSzilla posted a net income of $4.29 billion on revenue of $15.84 billion for the fourth quarter. It earned its shareholders $17.86 in total for the full year 2008, whilst selling bucketloads of software and a handful of Zunes worth $60.24 dollars.

The vole had to burrow into its furrows and open its treasure chest to pay the EU a hefty fine of $1.4 billion dollars (€899 million), bringing legal expenses to $1.8 billion dollars. The difference of $400 million seems to have made a lot of lawyers very happy. The corporation incurred an operating loss of $188 million in its Entertainment and Device Division, down from a loss of $1.22 billon in the same period of the previous year.

OSzilla stated it had managed to ship 1.3 million Xbox 360 game consoles in the quarter, 600.000 more than the year before. In total, 8.7 million Xbox 360s went forth from the halls of Vole Town to make punters happy worldwide.

Online Services Business incurred an operating loss of 488 million dollars in the fourth quarter, an increase of 132%, whilst revenue increased by 24% from 677 million to 838 million US dollars. 460 million unfortunate souls now have a Windows Live ID, compared to 382 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2007. All other divisions rake in money and grew more or less soundly allowing the majority of voles to snooze and snore soundly in their burrows, whilst others still have to furrow and pad around trying to turn their losses into profits.  X