14 DAY TRIAL // In the 2007 fiscal year, Microsoft accounted for a total revenue of $51.12 billion, no less than 15% more than the previous year. And while the Redmond company indicated that its main cash cows, Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System, are the main catalysts of the revenue growth, a reduction in the legal payouts has also contributed to the $5.1 billion. In the past fiscal year, Microsoft managed to take down its legal costs to no less than $511 million, according to SeattlePI. And although half a billion dollars in legal payouts is a price tag that weighs heavily on the company's pockets, Microsoft can applaud the figure as the lowest in the past years.
In fiscal year 2006, Microsoft ended up paying approximately $1.4 billion as a result of legal settlements. And even FY06 was a breeze compared with FY05 when Microsoft's settlements totaled in excess of $2.3 billion. In terms of profit, Microsoft expects a continuous growth in the current 2008 fiscal year, but based not only on Vista and Office 2007, as the company is getting ready to make available its server-side line of products in February of next year. "In fiscal year 2008, we will continue to drive growth through new product offerings, such as Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM," stated Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.
"Management offers the following guidance for the full fiscal year ending June 30, 2008: revenue is expected to be in the range of $56.8 billion to $57.8 billion; operating income is expected to be in the range of $22.2 billion to $22.7 billion and diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $1.69 to $1.73. The foregoing guidance does not include the impact of currently undetermined costs associated with Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive," Microsoft stated.
The company's half a billion legal payouts in FY2007 is regarded as nothing more than business costs, related to intellectual property and monopoly cases. However, in the current fiscal year, Microsoft could potentially dig deep into its pockets as it faces no less than $950 million in antitrust financial penalties just from the European Union Antitrust regulators.