On Thursday, Microsoft announced operating income of $7 billion on record revenue of $16.2 billion for the quarter ending September 30. The results were dramatically better than expectations and up significantly from the same time period a year ago. Indeed, the company experienced double-digit sales and income growth. Net income jumped a whopping 51 percent.
Microsoft also reported that all its business units experienced growth in the quarter, at least temporarily silencing critics who have latched onto a nonsensical thread in recent days about the software giant’s supposedly dying business.
“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7, and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” said Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein. “Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion.”
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The Xbox 360 experienced a torrid quarter, with console sales rising 38 percent, thanks largely to a hardware refresh and the new Halo: Reach game. Office sales jumped 15 percent, thanks to the Office 2010 release. A “continued healthy and sustaining business PC refresh cycle” drove Windows 7 sales to an average of more than 20 million licenses per month, and even Bing was cited for its continued market-share growth in the quarter.
