Microsoft writes down Nokia acquisition, loses $3.2 billion in Q4

Scorpus

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Microsoft has released their financial results for the fourth quarter of their 2015 fiscal year, and thanks to a hefty $7.5 billion write down of the Nokia acquisition, the company lost several billion dollars in the quarter.

In Q4, Microsoft recorded $22.2 billion in revenue for an operating loss of $2.1 billion, which extends to a net loss of $3.2 billion when taxes are factored in, resulting in a $0.40 loss per share. Without factoring in charges related to the Nokia write down, Microsoft's operating income was $6.39 billion.

Aside from the losses as a result of the Nokia write down, Microsoft didn't exactly have a great quarter. Revenue is down five percent compared to the same quarter last year, and income (minus the Nokia charges) was down three percent.

The company also recorded a significant decrease in revenue in several key business units. Windows OEM revenue declined by 22% due to the weak PC market, while the Devices and Consumer unit's revenue as a whole declined by 13%. Windows Phone also isn't doing well, seeing a 68% decline in revenue despite a 10% growth in Lumia sales, mostly because most Windows Phones sold were low-end devices.

There is some good news for Microsoft, though. The Surface division saw revenue grow by 117% on the back of strong Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 sales. Xbox revenue is also up by 27%, and the company managed to add three million Office 365 subscribers in the one quarter. On the commercial side, cloud service revenue saw strong growth.

With Windows 10 set to launch next week, there is hope that Microsoft will see better financial results in the next quarter as people begin to upgrade to systems running the new operating system.

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$3.2 bil is one helluva lotta dough to write off. They should limit some of the loss by digging into Ballmer's back pocket, after all he was the big noise behind that crackpot, harebrained acquisition.
 
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I think Microsoft's new moto is "device & services", so it's not Ballmer's fault that the *****s left behind could not leverage the Nokia brand.
I think I'm being really really nice in just calling them *****s. REALLY NICE! :D
 
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