Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Broken Windows: Microsoft Misses on Revenue and Earnings in Q1

One of the main things that Wall Street analysts had been watching for in the first-quarter earnings for Microsoft today was how its current flagship Windows software business was doing in the lead-up to the release of Windows 8 on October 26.

A little cracked, as it turns out.

Investors had expected that the Redmond, Wash., software giant’s first-quarter earnings would be $16.4 billion, compared to $17.4 billion last year, and that earnings would drop to 56 cents from 68 cents.

Instead, Microsoft turned in quarterly revenue of $16.01 billion and earnings of 53 cents a share.

One big culprit was a decline in sales of Windows, which was impacted by the company’s deferral of revenue related to Windows 8.

Microsoft is making a big bet that the new operating system — a drastic change from previous versions — will boost sales of PC and other mobile devices, especially tablets. The once-dominant company is seeing big challenges from consumer interest in products that do not use Windows, especially from Apple and Google.

Thus, it is now wait and see, which made investors nervous. Microsoft’s stock was down over 3 percent in after-hours trading, to $28.58.

That’s no surprise given the news.

Said Microsoft:

“The Windows & Windows Live Division posted revenue of $3.24 billion, a 33% decrease from the prior year period. Adjusting for the impact of the Windows Upgrade Offer and pre-sales of Windows 8 to OEMs prior to general availability, Windows division non-GAAP revenue declined 9% for the first quarter.”

Windows had already seen a decline in sales of the key product, which was down nearly 13 percent in the last quarter.

Other divisions had mixed revenue results: Servers & Tools was up eight percent, the Business division had a two percent decline, the Online Services unit saw a nine percent rise and the Entertainment and Devices division was down one percent.

Here’s the full Q1 press release, as well as Microsoft’s financial statement and pretty slides (and I threw in the 10-Q for good measure). The company will have an earnings call at 2:30 pm PT about the results:

PressReleaseFY13Q1

FinancialStatementFY13Q1

SlidesFY13Q1

MSFT_FY13Q1_10Q

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