Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Quarterly Results: A Disappointment in Summary

The winning hand



Summary: Negative press which is mostly obscured by Vista 7 marketing; Microsoft's lesser-explored business units are actually on the decline, as is Microsoft's stock

AS we promised earlier on, here is a quick look at the results Microsoft reported last week. The Times Online says that "Microsoft profits fail to impress" and John Letzing from MarketWatch says exactly the same thing (also in the headline): "Microsoft's numbers fail to impress"



Needless to say, this is not the story Microsoft told the public. Microsoft is obliged to embellish, to spin, and sometimes to lie (as long as it's not a crime). According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft did not do enough, so the stock went down. All which came out of Microsoft's mouth was "Windows 7 this and Windows 7 that..."

It's a decoy.

Terry Porter's example from the other day showed that some businesses are very unhappy with Vista 7 (enough for them to move to another operating system or go back to XP). InfoWorld (IDG) has this new article which is titled: "Where are my Windows 7 print drivers?"

Many HP printers still lack drivers even for Vista. Here's why so many printers are abandoned with each new operating system


This is the type of problem Porter cited the other day. Vista 7 suffers from some of the same problems that Vista suffered from. It is, in essence, just another Vista.

“...Microsoft's results were down very sharply the year before (declining by about a third).”Anyway, Microsoft used these latest financial results that are generally disappointing to hype up Vista 7. The intention was to place focus on just one part of Microsoft's business (many articles sing that same tune), which is not comparable on a year-to-year basis because last year there was a 2-year-old Vista, which cannot be equated to a new release in a much better marketplace (recovery of the Dow Jones for starters, an index which rose more sharply than sales of Windows).

As an important reminder, Microsoft's results were down very sharply the year before (declining by about a third). That was in April 2009. So resurgence this year hardly means much, unless someone is spinning it and the spin eventually prevails at the expense of objective interpretation.

Looking outside the 'box' which is Vista 7, Microsoft's business performed rather badly [1, 2] and here is how Microsoft boosters put it:

Server & Tools: This division, which includes Windows Server, SQL Server and related products, was once renowned for stringing together consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth. No more.


Quoting the above, Pamela Jones wrote in Groklaw: "So, SCO's attacks on Linux didn't help longterm, eh?" (she is referring to the SCO case which Microsoft played a role in)

"Bing Loses More Money as Microsoft Chases Google," says this report.

During Microsoft's fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, the Online Services Division, or OSD, reported a 12 percent increase in revenue, which rose to US$566 million on the back of higher advertising revenue. That wasn't enough to offset a surge in operating expenses during the period. The division's quarterly loss grew by 73 percent to $713 million, compared to a loss of $411 million during the same period last year.


Indeed. As we pointed out before, Microsoft is approaching the loss of $3 billion per year when it comes to the Internet business. Here is how Business Insider puts it:

Microsoft's Bing/MSN Results Truly Horrifying -- Loss Rate Balloons To ~$3 Billion A Year



[...]

Microsoft's online services division losses exploded to $713 million, up from $411 million a year ago. That's almost a $3 billion loss run-rate.


And some people still call Bong [sic] a success. How many billions is Microsoft willing to lose before giving up? Microsoft has billions in debt.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: An Introduction
Perhaps tomorrow or perhaps next week we'll share more information about what happened and what was reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency
IBM's BS (Bait, Switch) Regarding Ways to Stay Onboard
PIPs, RTOs, and forced relocations are just an illusion of choice (or ability to recover)
Banned evidence: Ars Technica forums censored email predicting DebConf23 death, Abraham Raji & Debian cover-up
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Intimidation, Threats, and Bullying Not Tolerated by Techrights
When it comes to our reporting, safety always comes first
 
Links 29/03/2025: Trademarks Battles, Fires Destroy More Than 3,000 South Korean Homes
Links for the day
Links 29/03/2025: More Crackdowns on Science, "Hey Hi" Slopping is Flopping
Links for the day
Costa Rica Almost Bankrupt Because of Microsoft
the incidents in Costa Rica are Windows incidents
Gemini Links 29/03/2025: Art of Looking, Wireguard, EMacs
Links for the day
Links 29/03/2025: Attacks on Social Security and War Updates
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 28, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 28, 2025
A World Without Rules
We're long insisted on better laws and actual enforcement of them (applicable to all, not selectively applied)
statCounter Sees Microsoft Windows Falling to New, Unprecedented Lows in Palau
Taking Android into account, Windows is now down to an all-time low of 14%
Google News Lost the Fight to LLM Slop (While Google Itself Sells Slop, Nowadays Under the Name "Gemini")
Many people say that "Google is getting worse"; that's almost an understatement
Links 28/03/2025: AirAsia Trouble Again, UMich Culls All DEI Programs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Alexa is for Gullible People, Rant About Feature Overload
Links for the day
The SLAPPs From the Microsoft Strangler (and Sidekick) No Better Than Patent Trolling
one must never settle with trolls
Something to Celebrate in Gemini Protocol
More capsules and users join in
Links 28/03/2025: Last Reminder "to Delete Your 23andMe Data", "UK's First Permanent Facial Recognition Cameras Installed"
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical Continues Its FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) Campaign, Reveals Google Too Sponsored It
They're paid-for lies from a Chinese company that takes GAFAM money to write puff pieces about them
Android Rises Above 76% in Mozambique, Leaving Windows in the Dust
Windows may soon be measured as smaller than Apple's iOS
IBM, Red Hat and Microsoft Probably Also Manipulate Metrics (It Helps Con the Shareholders)
Wall Street's credibility will depend on enforcement of "checks and balances"
Slopwatch: trendhunter.com and Other Pure Junk From "Google News"
The need to vet sources is hardly new; anyone can spew out anything, anywhere. There's a need for vetting.
Gemini Links 28/03/2025: Rewatching The X-Files, Slop Concerns, and NOSTR Censorship
Links for the day
Links 28/03/2025: Australia at Risk, EPO Grants Illegal Patents With Illegal Effect
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 27, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, March 27, 2025
Links 27/03/2025: Obituary to a Shop, Russia Trying to Buy Time
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2025: Slop, Autosuggestions, and Nostr
Links for the day
Apparently Confirmed: IBM Layoffs in Canada Today, Hundreds Affected
Impacting "177 people", says one person, "in Ottawa"
When Windows Was Dominant (1990s) Browser Monopoly Meant MSIE, But Now Google Android is Dominant and the Web in a 'Webapps' Era Works With (or Is Designed for) Chrome-isms
We've been there before
Slopwatch: BetaNews, LinuxSecurity.com, and the Attack on Web Search Using Fake and Likely Plagiarised Pages
Changing a few words here and there won't change the fact that it's not properly authored
Links 27/03/2025: U.S. Honeybee Deaths Reach Record High, Legal Occupation Next in Line After War on Science
Links for the day
Using Courts for 'Revenge' is Always a Losing Strategy
Trying to cause someone you dislike to spend a lot of money
IBM CFO James Kavanaugh Refers to Firing of Almost 10,000 Americans as "Workforce Rebalancing" (Shifting IBM's Centre of Balance to Low-salary Contracts/Countries)
The scale of IBM layoffs is getting too large to evade WARN Notices
[Video] Dr. Richard Stallman's Keynote Speech in Kerala Finally Uploaded
In non-free format and proprietary YouTube, but perhaps that's better than nothing
Islands Are Leaving Microsoft Behind, According to statCounter
Android has had a very strong year
EPO Management Fails to Deny That the Office is Discriminating Against Women
Europe's second-largest institution isn't just exceedingly corrupt but also immoral
In Some Countries the Market Share of Vista 11 is Going Down, Not Up
despite being released in 2021
Rumour: Mass Layoffs in IBM Canada Today
Maybe later today some people from Canada will say something firmer and maybe some media will even talk about that
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Gemini Links 27/03/2025: X-Files' "Kill Switch", Orlando, and ASN (Autonomous System Number) 'Hack'
Links for the day