Many analysts have written off Microsoft in the shadow of Google and Apple, but the software giant that powered the fading PC era still has plenty of muscle in the internet age, DPA reported.
The company reported record fourth-quarter revenue Thursday of 17.37 billion dollars, an 8-per-cent increase over the year-ago period.
Net income increased to 5.87 billion dollars, a 30-per-cent jump compared to last year. For the fiscal year ended June 30, Microsoft reported record revenue of 69.94 billion dollars, a 12-per-cent increase from the prior year, while net income was 23.15 billion dollars, a 23-per-cent increase on the year.
Microsoft gave the main credit for its impressive performance to its long-time cash cow, Microsoft Office, a suite of productivity software that has come under pressure from Google's online productivity tools. But revenue of Microsoft's Business Division grew 7 per cent for the quarter and 16 per cent for the full year, thanks largely to the success of Office 2010, which is the fast-selling version in the history of Microsoft Office with more than 100 million licenses sold.
Online service revenue grew 17 per cent in the quarter as Microsoft's search engine captured a 14.4-per-cent US market share. Entertainment and devices revenue saw a sharp increase with revenue popping 30 per cent in the fourth quarter and 45 per cent for the year, due to the ongoing momentum of the Xbox console, the Kinect motion controller and Xbox Live.