Software giant Microsoft reported a fall in its quarterly profit as sluggish PC sales dampened demand for Windows software and the company struggled with the impact of the strong US dollar.
Shares of the world’s largest software company, which have surged to 14-year highs in the past few months, fell three percent.
The fall did not seem to faze the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street who seemed to be expecting it. Not much can really stand up to a high dollar pressure and most thought the numbers were good enough.
Microsoft’s flagship Windows business has been under pressure for three years as PC sales have declined, although the market appears to be stabilising in recent months.
Currency shifts against the strong U.S. dollar also crimped profit in the fiscal second quarter, ended December 31, although Microsoft did not specify by how much. Microsoft gets almost three-quarters of its revenue from overseas, but a significant amount of that is still in US dollars.
Commercial licensing is chiefly sales of Windows and Office to business customers, which is Microsoft’s biggest revenue generator.
Microsoft reported profit of $5.86 billion for the latest quarter, compared with $6.56 billion last year.
Sales rose eight percent to $26.47 billion, largely due to the acquisition of Nokia’s phone handset business last year.
Analysts had expected revenue of $26.3 billion including some restructuring costs.
