Microsoft
Sure, Mr. Softy beat revenue estimates by about $400 million this time around, to land at $16.4 billion. (Have a closer look at all of the numbers and growth rates in our Fool by Numbers feature). And it just so happens that a flagging dollar helped this multinational behemoth out with a $410 million boost in total revenues. Back that wild card out, and the Street gang was dead-on.
And if the revenue improvement still looks impossibly strong, well, you're kind of right. There are some smoke-and-mirrors tricks at work here. If you bought a Dell
That still leaves a sales increase of some $2.8 billion unaccounted for, and there's the real beef. As other worldwide tech giants such as IBM
Just in case you need one more reassuring sound-bite about the state of the global economy, Microsoft is happy to oblige. "While we are monitoring the changing economic conditions, we continue to expect double-digit revenue growth," says the 10-Q statement filed along with the usual press release. "We estimate worldwide PC shipments will grow 11% to 13%," along with continued exchange rate benefits. So things are looking good for computer salespeople, but the government can't stop the dollar's southward slide. If you ask Microsoft, that is.
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