Office 97 helps Microsoft posts record earnings for quarter

Microsoft today announced net income of US$1.04 billion for the quarterending March 31, an 80% increase over the same quarter last year. Revenuestotaled $3.21 billion, a 45% increase over last year. Microsoft was quickto downplay the dramatic gains:

"Worldwide acceptance of Microsoft Office 97 ignited these outstanding results," noted Mike Brown, Microsoft's chief financial officer. "As corporate and retail customers upgraded to this new product with enthusiasm, we also realized solid gains in the OEM channel because of the continued popularity of 32-bit Windows operating systems. And we reaped the benefits of an improved cost model. However, incredible results like these are seldom duplicated, and we are mindful of the very tough comparisons we will have in fiscal 1998."

According to Microsoft, the company has sold 8 million copies of Office 97since the product went on sale three months ago. There are now over 60 million Microsoft Office users. The company also announced that 15 millionpeople are using Internet Explorer 3.0, the company's Web browser and that750,000 developers and users downloaded Internet Explorer 4.0 since it wasfirst made available ten days ago. The popularity of Internet Explorer across the globe is underscored by the fact that the product, for the first time, is now accounting for over 50% of hits on popular international Web sites.

In a conference call with financial analysts and the press, Microsoft CFOMike Brown and VP and Treasurer Greg Maffei announced a few other interesting factoids: