“Net profits for the quarter reached $2.39 billion, up
from $1.91 billion for the same period last year. Those figures
translate into earnings of 43 cents a share and 35 cents a
share, respectively.”
“Mind you, just under a third of that – $885 million – came
from the sale of Microsoft investments, hardly a core activity
for a software company. Discount such padding and the company’s
profit comes to $1.505 billion, or 27 cents a share.
Microsoft’s investment portfolio stood at $21.3 billion at the end
of the quarter – its cash reserves totalled $21.2 billion.”
“The company doesn’t appear to have mentioned the L-word, and
while Microsoft’s share of the OS market vastly outweighs Linux’s
share, it can’t have failed to have some impact, albeit a small
one.”