Microsoft posts first ever quarterly loss

On Thursday Microsoft reported its fourth quarter earnings for 2012.
Microsoft posted its first ever quarterly loss of $0.06 per share on sales of $18.06 billion, due to a huge $6.2 billion charge in its online services division relating to its failed 2007 acquisition of aQuantive. The company managed a record quarter, pulling in a profit of $0.73 per share versus Wall Street’s EPS expectations of $0.62, on revenue of $18.06 billion, almost missing Wall Street’s $18.13 billion consensus. Microsoft’s performance is expected to improve later this year following the launches of its Surface tablet computer, Windows 8 operating system and Office 2013.

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