“A flopped acquisition may lump Microsoft with the first loss in its 26-year history as a public company when the software maker releases its latest quarterly results Thursday,” The Associated press reports.
“The fiscal fourth-quarter numbers, due out after the stock market closes, will include a $6.2 billion charge to reflect that Microsoft’s 2007 acquisition of online ad service aQuantive hasn’t yielded the returns envisioned by management,” AP reports. “The non-cash charge is so large that it could wipe out Microsoft’s earnings from April through June. Analysts polled by FactSet had predicted Microsoft would earn about $5.3 billion in the three-month span. That doesn’t reflect the aQuantive charge. Microsoft didn’t spell out how its quarterly results would be affected when it announced the charge on July 2.”
AP reports, “Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., has never previously reported a quarterly loss since the company’s initial public offering in March 1986… Excluding the aQuantive charge and certain other items, analysts surveyed by FactSet expect Microsoft to earn 62 cents per share on revenue of $18.2 billion.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s earnings or lack thereof.
More likely too much spending. Technically they are still making money but not spend it wisely. Keep up the good work monkey boy!
Not so. If you sell me your lunch for $5 that cost you $4 to make and then buy an $8 “Happy Meal”, you are out $3 less the $1 of prior profit. That is a $2 total loss in the lunch deal.
Apple and it’s iPad are eating Microsoft’s lunch!
no matter the costs – the one that did not eat the Happy Meal, wins.
I don’t know about that… I think the one who eats the mcNuggets happy meal wins.
They -McNuggets- powered Usain Bolt on to an olympic gold medal (100M sprint) in the 2008 olympic games
(I am serious, he did an interview a few weeks after and said he was hungry that morning but didn’t want to risk upsetting his stomach, so he went and got something he knew well… chicken McNuggets. A few hours after than -Bam- olympic gold.)
Has it never crossed your mind that McDonalds might have just paid him to say that?
Maybe he was paid, maybe he likes McNuggets.
For those of you who haven’t heard about the 17 year old McNugget girl:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2092071/Stacey-Irvine-17-collapses-eating-McDonalds-chicken-nuggets-age-2.html
He wasn’t in a promo contract with McDonald’s, so if they did they did it under the table (which would be a very unusual (and risky) thing for an large public company to do)
Besides that, McD’s never made any hay with the story. The reason they didn’t is likely because they didn’t have Usain under a promotional contract.
So yes, it even occurred to me when I saw it (live) on dave letterman, but it really didn’t seem like it. It seemed like a very honest and sincere story and because they were making fun of how UN-healthy the product was (something I don’t think McD’s would have tolerated if they were paying for the exposure.)
All I want to know is if Microsoft will chicken out and fail to release the number of Windows 7 licenses, again, because they know making that number public will show that iOS has surpassed Windows in market share.
This is what Balmy meant as “bold”. He didn’t specify what color ink!
If Microsoft does in fact post a net loss on Thursday, I look forward to seeing how the market reacts with its stock price. When Apple fails to meet, not its projections but, market analysts exaggerated projections, the market hammers Apple, profits ignored.
The source article wraps up trumpeting Microsoft’s unreleased software to mitigate the loss. If Apple fails to outperform its last year’s quarter, I predict we’ll hear more Apple is doomed, and the bubble has burst rhetoric.
Low expectations are already baked into the stock price. There will be no movement.
Low earnings are one thing, an actual loss is wholly another. No way that is baked into the stock price.
Ah yes, the wages of evil.
Now that was a good investment! Too bad the Yahoo thing fell through. The word “bold” may have had to be enhanced a bit. 😉
Did they invest in a keyboard company? 😉
Kickstand maker.
so Ballmer pisses away $6.2 billion on a stupid scheme, and everyone just says “ho-hum” – business as usual?
talk about reality distortion.
“talk about reality distortion.”
The medical term is Cognitive Dissonance.
and over 8 billion on a free service (Skype)
The disaster that is Windows 8 will cost far more than $6.2 billion
I sure hope you are right, russ! You sure put a huge smile on my face. Could not happen to a nicer company.
Gross margins and revenue can hide tremendous errors in management. If Ballmer were CEO of ANY other firm he would have been sacked by the shareholders (forget the Board, its dysfunctional) years ago, no matter Ballmer’s relationship to Gates.
It’s a rounding error. A rounding error, I tell ya!!!
This is just plain old stock manipulation. They are piling as much negative stuff on their balance sheet now, while holding back as much positive stuff as possible, so the next quarter, when Windows 8 is released, they can make it as big a quarter as possible.
Microsoft : mene, mene, tekel, u-aaplfb
http://00u.me/rates.php Short URL