Microsoft beats Street with $16 billion in revenue

From CNET News.com: Microsoft ended the fiscal year on a strong note, reporting fourth-quarter profits of $4.52 billion, or 51 cents per share on Thursday.

The software maker beat Wall Street estimates, and also announced its best-ever quarterly revenue of $16.04 billion, an increase of 22 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Wall Street analysts had been expecting Microsoft's revenue to fall somewhere between $14.85 billion and $15.74 billion.

"We saw strong sales execution across all of our businesses, particularly in the enterprise with Windows 7 and Office 2010," Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said in a statement. "Our transition to cloud services is well under way with offerings like Windows Azure and our Business Productivity Online Services, and we look forward to continuing our product momentum this fall with the upcoming launches of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect."

Microsoft's bump in revenue was due to Windows 7 and Office 2010 selling well, the company said. It's been a good quarter overall for the tech industry, with Intel reporting its most profitable quarter in its history, and IDC data showing PC shipments up 22 percent.

Microsoft's own data shows the PC market up between 22 percent and 24 percent, and the company says emerging markets are "a significant driver of the PC market," increasing their growth by almost twice that of mature markets, Bill Koefoed, general manager of investor relations, said on the earnings call Thursday afternoon.

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