It’s been a rough ride for the economy, that’s been painfully obvious to millions of consumers, workers and even the mighty corporate giants. Microsoft, a giant among giants, posted a 6% decline in profits during the same period as last year. The company posted a 32 percent drop in its third-quarter profit to $3 billion resulting in 33 cents per share value. Compared to $4.39 billion last fiscal year, which had Microsoft stock at 47 cents a share. This is the first year-over-year quarterly revenue decline since the company went public in 1986…ouch.
What does all this mean? Obviously more woes for investors whom had held hopes that companies like Microsoft could ride the economic storm with minimal losses.
At the same time however, there seems to be glimmers of hope as one Microsoft division, Xbox, posts that sales are up. Xbox 360 console sales were up nearly 30% with 1.7 million systems sold between January 1st and March 31, 2009. Xbox also also reported strong attach rates of software and accessories for the Xbox 360 from the same period.
Good news on the horizon then? Well, it seems like Microsoft has won some small battles while the larger fight brews on. Stimulus be damned, Microsoft needs to rally it’s troops in an effort to stem the tide against the dreaded economic threat that caused their first ever profit loss. Can Xbox lead them to win the war? Maybe Master Chief can help.
