For the first time in 23 years, since Microsoft has become a public company, its has suffered a drop in profits leaving its third quarter profit at $3 billion, down 32% from this time last year. The company are expecting this shortfall to continue for at least another quarter according to their Chief Financial Officer Christopher Liddel as reported on bizjournals.com. 
After cutting 5,000 jobs in January, Microsoft reported $290 million worth in severance charges. Revenue for the company is also down approximately $800 million according to bizjournal.com.
Their alleged anti-competetive practices are still an issue with the EU, and Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, admits that ‘the economic downturn was making life difficult’ as reported by BBC news. On a lighter note, a new Windows 7 will be released to replace Windows Vista, so while profits are down at the moment, perhaps it won’t be long before they are back on track and making billions more.
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