Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $7.84 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2003, an 8 percent increase over revenue of $7.25 billion for the same period in the prior year. Operating income for the third quarter grew 13 percent to $3.72 billion, compared to operating income of $3.30 billion reported in the prior year. Net income for the quarter was $2.79 billion, compared to $2.74 billion reported in the previous year. Diluted earnings per share for the March 2003 quarter were $0.26.
"We reported another quarter of strong revenue and operating income results in a very tough environment," said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "While there is obviously a great deal of economic uncertainty ahead, our ongoing investment in R&D has resulted in a broad product pipeline, including upcoming releases of Windows® Server 2003, Visual Studio® .NET 2003, Exchange 2003 and Office 2003. We believe that these innovative products will enable our customers to get more productivity and value out of their IT investments."
Information Worker revenue was up 9 percent compared to the same period last year, driven by positive customer demand for Office XP. Customers acquiring Office this quarter included Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Northern Trust Corporation and Pier 1 Imports. Also during the quarter, the company announced the broad availability of Beta 2 for Office 2003. With initial customer demand exceeding expectations, the company now plans to issue more than 600,000 copies of the Beta 2 kits.
News source: Microsoft PressPass
