Microsoft sales decline 6 percent

First time in 23-year history as a public company that sales dropped year-over-year

23 April 2009 23:11 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Microsoft can't, it seems, claim the same good fortune of Apple with its latest results, as the company announces a 6% decline in performance for its latest quarter based on like for like revenue from last year.

The Redmond based company announced revenue of $13.65 billion for its third quarter ended March 31, 2009.

“With our continued R&D investment and our broad suite of products and services, we remain in a great position to compete and gain share in the marketplace”, said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.

The financial results for the third quarter ended March 31, 2009, included $290 million of severance charges related to the previously announced plan to reduce up to 5000 positions and $420 million of impairments to investments. Combined, these two charges reduced earnings per share by $0.06.

Revenue in Client, Microsoft Business Division, and Server & Tools was negatively impacted by weakness in the global PC and Server markets say Microsoft.

Luckily for the company, revenue from enterprise customers remained stable during the quarter.

“While market conditions remained weak during the quarter, I was pleased with the organization’s ability to offset revenue pressures with the swift implementation of cost-savings initiatives”, said Chris Liddell, the chief financial officer for Microsoft, in a statement Thursday. "We expect the weakness to continue through at least the next quarter".

It is the first time in Microsoft’s 23-year history as a public company, its sales have dropped year-over-year.