Microsoft sales fall; cost cuts pleasing

SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft said Friday its revenue kept falling and its net income dropped 18 percent in the last quarter, partly due to the hesitation of businesses, which are more profitable for the company than consumers are.

Big cost cuts at Microsoft made a difference, though, helping it deliver earnings well above analysts’ expectations. Its stock surged $1.29, nearly 5 percent, to $27.88 in afternoon trading. Earlier in the day, the stock reached a 52-week high of $29.35.

But while the quarterly results looked good to Wall Street, they also showed how much Microsoft is still wrestling with a PC industry that remains much weaker than a year ago. In the past year the software maker resorted to its first wide-scale layoffs, and in July it said its annual revenue had fallen for the first time since the company went public in 1986.

Tags: us business, business, microsoft, profits