Microsoft Pushes Up Profits By 79% ; TECHNOLOGY

Jan 25, 06:02 PM

The company lifted its fullyear earnings outlook above Wall Street estimates after sales of its Windows Vista operating system and Office software suite soared. Sales of the Xbox games console are also riding high.

Finance chief Chris Liddell told analysts there were no signs of any significant impact on Microsoft from a slowing US economy.

"You have to look really hard to find any weakness in our results," he said. Net secondquarter profits grew to $4.7 billion (Pounds 2.4 billion) from $2.6 billion a year earlier.

However, second-quarter revenue and profit growth rates are exaggerated by results a year ago when Microsoft deferred more than $1 billion in net income because of delays in releasing Vista and Office 2007, which hit stores in early 2007.

The company boosted its revenue outlook to between $59.9 billion and $60.5 billion, from between $58.8 billion and $59.7 billion..

(c) 2008 Evening Standard; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Microsoft Pushes Up Profits By 79% ; TECHNOLOGY
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