国际英语新闻：Microsoft's first-quarter profit, sales up

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 2 percent and sales climbed 9 percent despite uncertainty over the deepening financial crisis.

    In the three-month period that ended on Sept. 30, Microsoft's earnings rose to 4.37 billion dollars, or 48 cents a share, from 4.29 billion dollars, or 45 cents a share, in the same period last year. Meanwhile, its sales rose to 15.1 billion dollars, the software giant said.

    The company beat the Wall Street's expectations on both counts. Analysts predicted that Microsoft would earn 47 cents a share from the 14.8 billion dollars in sales.

    Microsoft attributed the result to a 20-percent jump in sales of multiyear contracts to businesses, which helped boost revenue for Microsoft's server software group and the division that makes Office productivity software.

    The server group's profit increased 20 percent to 1.2 billion dollars, while the division responsible for Office software saw earnings jumping 23 percent to 3.3 billion dollars, according to the company.

    The Windows division's profit, however, slipped 4 percent to 3.3 billion dollars due to higher marketing expenses, Microsoft said.