 A good set of figures for Mr Gates |
Microsoft has thanked strong sales of personal computers for a quarterly rise in both sales and profits. Reporting its results for the fourth quarter, it saw net profits increase to $2.7bn (�1.5bn) from the $1.6bn (�867m) for the same period last year.
Sales revenue in turn was up from $8.1bn to $9.3bn, said the software giant.
Yet on Wall Street, where Microsoft's shares fell slightly in after-hours Thursday trading, analysts had been expecting yet higher profits.
They had been predicting profits of 29p a share rather than the 25p which $2.7bn represents.
Microsoft's quarterly results come a day after it announced plans to return more than $75bn (�40.5bn) in cash to shareholders over the next four years, starting with a one-off dividend worth $32bn, or $3 a share, in December this year.
For its coming fiscal year Microsoft now expects to see sales revenue of $38.4bn to $38.8bn, up from previous guidance of $37.8bn and $38.2bn.
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