San Francisco (CA) – Microsoft has confirmed that fourth quarter revenue plummeted a shocking 17 percent to $13.10 billion. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $3.99 billion, $3.05 billion and $0.34 – which represented declines of 30, 29 and 26 percent compared with the prior year period.
“While economic conditions presented challenges this year, we maintained our focus on delivering customer satisfaction and providing solutions to our customers to save money,” said Microsoft COO Kevin Turner. “I am very excited by the wave of product and services innovations being delivered in this next fiscal year.”
Mircosoft CFO Chris Liddell expressed similar sentiments.
“Our business continued to be negatively impacted by weakness in the global PC and server markets,” spun Liddell. “In light of that environment, it was an excellent achievement to deliver over $750 million of operational savings compared to the prior year quarter.”
Liddel explained that financial results for the fourth quarter included the deferral of $276 million of revenue related to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program that was announced on June 25, 2009. The results were also affected by $193 million of legal charges, $108 million of impairments to investments and $40 million of additional severance charges related to the previously announced plan. In addition, operating expenses were reduced by $105 million of capitalized research and development expenses due to the technical milestones reached for Windows 7.
Liddel added that significant product milestones were achieved in the quarter, including the releases of Windows 7 RC, Windows Server 2008 (R2) RC and Bing.
It should be noted that total reported revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009 was $58.44 billion – which marked a 3 percent decline from the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the year were $20.36 billion, $14.57 billion and $1.62, representing declines of 9, 18 percent and 13 percent.
