Microsoft Earnings: Another Big Miss; Surface RT Tablet Contributed to Fourth-Quarter Results That Fell Short of Expectations
Microsoft Corp. took a $900 million charge on its high-profile Surface RT tablet, contributing to fourth-quarter results that sharply missed revenue and profit expectations.</br></br>The software giant also cited the effects of the soft personal-computer market in its quarterly report Thursday.</br></br>Excluding the Surface write-down, it posted earnings of 66 cents a share, well below Wall Street estimates of 75 cents, while revenue came in at $19.9 billion, compared with analyst expectations of $20.7 billion.</br></br>The company's shares tumbled 6.3% in after-hours trading to $33.22, off $2.22.</br></br>The results showed how Microsoft, still a vastly profitable company, remains stymied in its efforts to adapt to a range of new computing platforms and approaches.