Blow a Sad Trombone for Microsoft
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 20, 2009 at 10:05 AM PT
Microsoft is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings Thursday and if last quarter is any indication, they won’t be pretty.
In April, when the company reported its first-ever year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue, CFO Chris Liddell said the weakness would persist through the next quarter. This is “the most difficult economic environment the company has faced in our history,” he said. So when the company reports subpar financials later this week, it should come as no surprise.
Certainly, analysts are already steeling themselves for a poor showing. Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters have Microsoft (MSFT) posting earnings of 36 cents per share on revenue of $14.38 billion. That’s down quite a bit from the 46 cents a share and $15.84 billion Microsoft reported during the same period last year and demonstrates just how heavily the ongoing weakness in the PC and server markets is weighing on the company.
With global PC shipments at their worst since the great dark times of 2001, there’s little reason to expect things to improve for Microsoft anytime soon.
