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We knew that Microsoft's quarter was going to be a rough one after it announced a $7.6 billion write-down of the Devices and Services division it purchased from Nokia last year, and so it has come to pass: on revenue of $22.2 billion, the company had a gross margin of $14.7 billion, an operating loss of $2.05 billion, a net after-tax loss of $3.20 billion, and a $0.40 loss per share.
This was driven by a $7.5 billion goodwill and asset impairment charge from Nokia Devices and Services, coupled with a new $0.78 billion restructuring charge, and a further $0.16 billion cost for integration and previously announced restructuring. In total, the company booked $8.4 billion of losses in the quarter.
This loss eclipses the $0.49 billion loss in that fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year that was driven largely by the $6.2 billion write-down of the aQuantive advertising firm.
But even absent that massive hit, the quarter wasn't a good one. That $22.2 billion of revenue is down 5 percent on the same quarter last year, and excluding the one-off Nokia charges, operating income was $6.39 billion, down 3 percent year on year. The company's Device and Consumer segment was down sharply, as sales of non-volume-licensed Windows and Office continued their fall on the back of a weak PC market: Windows license revenue from OEM preinstalls was down 22 percent, and consumer sales of Office were down 42 percent. Windows Phone revenue was down an even sharper 68 percent, due to a decrease in royalty payments, though sales of Lumia hardware were up more than 10 percent to 8.4 million, compared to 7.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Microsoft (MS) Office has always been a main revenue engine for them, so the 42 percent drop in consumer sales may be the most sobering part of the report, not so much for total sales (corporate are what's important) but as a canary in the coal mine for Office.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday July 22 2015, @10:59PM
Nobody has genuinely enjoyed a Windows upgrade since XP-sp1
Actually, I just got my hands on build 10240 of Win10 (the 'rtm') build; and although I had some major issues with the tech previews, I was pleasantly surprised at how well behaved 10240 was. All my gripes with the previews were resolved; and I'm genuinely looking at Win10 as a worthwhile upgrade from XP, Vista, 8, and 8.1. And given that its free from Win7 I think it's worth it. Just to be on the current support -- 7 is set to sunset soon after all.
There's some crap turned on by default that I dislike; (that whole wifi networks shared by contacts nonsense, location services, search queries on the desktop forwarded to bing for web results, etc.
I'm now seriously looking forward to Server 2016.
As for office... meh. Office XP was hardly the pinnacle so I disagree with you about nothing improving since "then". Although 2007 is still perfectly usable. I like 2010 the most myself, but 2013 isn't bad.
Consumer office sales falling isn't a surprise. Its not just the PC market slowing. Average people just don't need it as much at home as they used to, and its expensive. The mom who used word for recipes and grocery lists now has an 'app for that'. The joe sixpack who wanted it so he could have outlook at home, because he was used to it at work just uses his phone now. etc. Lots of people still need office at home.. but its not hard to believe "42% fewer" do.
But I think business still generally needs it just as much as they always have, and will for the foreseeable future still.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @09:32AM
7 is set to sunset soon after all.
Yes, January 2020 [microsoft.com] is just around the corner (then the second Tokyo Olympics, following so soon after the first).