Microsoft Is Losing Money

While Microsoft is always profiting every quarter for the past 26 years, The AP recently reported that the company has had their first loss since 26 years they have been a public company. From the months of April to June, Microsoft has posted a net loss of $492 million.

While this may sound like a shocker that Microsoft is, for the first time, loosing money, they warned two weeks ago that it would take a $6.2 billion write off in the second quarter because their ad service, aQuantive, purchased in 2007,  failed to help it compete with Google Inc. Originally, the purchase of the ad service was supposed to help Microsoft boost its online ad business and help make itself more competitive with Google. Though Microsoft intended for the purchase to help the company,  aQuantive continued to post losses totaling $9 billion, not including the purchase cost.

Though Microsoft has hit a bump in the road, Steve Ballmer, the current CEO of Microsoft, has great optimism for the upcoming year saying that “We delivered record fourth quarter and annual revenue, and we’re fast approaching the most exciting launch season in Microsoft history.” For the total fiscal year, the company has reported $73.7 billion in revenue, and $21.8 billion in operating income. With Windows 8 being released in the coming months, investors are closely watching Microsoft to see if their new operating system delivers and whether Microsoft’s tablet will play a major role in the tablet market already dominated by Apple’s iPad and the various Google Android tablets. Hopefully, Microsoft can make a turnaround from this dip.