Microsoft Posts $492M Loss — First Ever
As expected — but no less insane — it’s the first time the company has reported a quarterly operating loss since going public in 1986. What would have been $5.3 billion in profit was wiped out from one bad deal.
And while Steve Ballmer is touting the record revenue (without mentioning the loss) in his statement, Microsoft’s revenue numbers also came in below Wall Street expectations (though only due to a Windows deferral for upgrades).
As for the wonderful Online Services Division, they managed to post a $6.672 billion loss for the quarter. Okay, when you take away the $6.2 billion aQuantive write down, it was “only” a $472 million loss.
That’s actually the best loss since 2008.
Yes, I just said “the best loss”.
Update: My headline previously linked to Frederic Lardinois’ post on TechCrunch which stated Microsoft posted a $192 million loss. He then updated to say it was actually a $192 profit. He actually read the numbers wrong twice. For the quarter, Microsoft actually lost $492 million.
Microsoft shouldn’t get a free pass because they made a bad deal, and at the time said they were on the way to ruling web advertising. -Shane
