Microsoft Posts $50 Billion in Annual Revenue

Microsoft said Thursday that it had surpassed $50 billion in annual revenue, while saying quarterly profits were up seven percent on brisk Vista sales.

For the quarter ending June 30, 2007, the company posted a net income of $3.06 billion, up from $2.83 billion a year ago. Profits would have been much higher, but its $1.06 billion charge-off for Xbox warranties cut into the company's profits.

Revenues for the quarter were $13.37 billion, bringing Microsoft's fiscal year 2007 revenue to $51.12 billion, a 15 percent increase over last year's numbers. Windows and Office comprised $8.44 billion in sales, up 16 percent, while its losses in the video game unit doubled to $1.2 billion, with sales down 10 percent from last year.

"Our results this quarter cap off an extremely strong fiscal year for the company," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "We have healthy core businesses and are strategically investing in growth opportunities, which will build on our success and contribute to continued double-digit revenue and earnings growth in fiscal year 2008."

Microsoft's strong results this fiscal year can be attributed to the release of new versions of Windows and Office this period, as well as to the solid slaes of its SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio products, and the 360.

"In fiscal year 2008, we will continue to drive growth through new product offerings, such as Windows Server(R) 2008, Visual Studio(R) 2008, SQL Servertm 2008, Office PerformancePointtm Server 2007, and Microsoft Dynamicstm Live CRM," COO Kevin Turner added.