Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) profit was up by 29% in the fiscal year ended in June, from $16.9 billion in the previous fiscal year to $21.8 billion, while revenues rose by 5.6% to $77.8 billion. The result last year was affected by an exceptional charge of $6.2 billion related to the acquisition of aQuantive Inc. by Microsoft.
For the fourth quarter of the past fiscal year, from April to June, Microsoft announced a profit of five billion dollars, compared to a loss of 492 million dollars a year ago. The U.S. group announced in July of 2012 that it was taking a write down of $6.2 billion for the cost of acquisition of aQuantive in the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year. Microsoft paid $6.3 billion for a company that didn’t perform as expected.
The result for the quarter was below expectations of Microsoft analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, as a result of a lower demand for computers running Windows. The profit was also negatively influenced by an exceptional cost of $900 million on stocks of Surface tablets. Without this charge, earnings per share stood at 66 cents per share, while analysts were expecting 75 cents.
Revenues stood at $19.9 billion, well below analysts’ estimates of $20.7 billion. “PCs were just uglier than people thought they would be, and people also had more Surface sales in there than there were,” said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.
Windows sales are under pressure from weak demand for PCs, reflecting five quarters of decline. Microsoft had revenues of $4.4 billion from selling Windows operating system, compared to estimates of $4.8 billion from analysts polled by Bloomberg.
“We know we have to do better, particularly on mobile devices, and so that’s a big reason we made the strategic and organizational changes we made last week,” said Amy Hood, Microsoft chief financial officer in an interview. She added that it will take a long time for Microsoft’s position in tablets to make up for the contracting consumer PC market.
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