Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Flair who wrote (5486)	3/16/1998 2:40:00 AM
From: Flair	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

All, - "Microsoft bullish for 98 launches" Reuters Story - March 16, 1998 01:25 By Bernard Hickey SYDNEY, March 16 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates said on Monday he was confident the software group's major product launches were on track and its earnings outlook was unchanged despite the Asian downturn and U.S. legal hurdles. Gates told a news conference he saw no reason to change the group's profit outlook, despite a slew of profit downgrades from other big high tech stocks such as Intel Corp and Compaq Computer Corp in recent weeks. Microsoft chief financial officer Greg Maffei told analysts in a conference call in late January after the group's second quarter earnings he saw earnings rising slightly in the third quarter to March 31, before flattening in the final quarter because of limited Asian growth. "I don't have anything new to add to that," Gates told a news conference in Sydney when asked if the group was still on track to meet analysts' third quarter earnings estimates despite the recent downgrades elsewhere. The consensus forecast for Microsoft's Q3 earnings is about US$0.44 a share, which is just above Q2's US$0.85 a share once a two-for-one stock split is taken into account. But since Maffei's conference call Compaq and Intel have both downgraded their outlooks, citing reduced demand. This had raised questions about Microsoft's outlook, given that it often supplies the operating systems and software sold in Intel-powered Compaq personal computers and others. Gates, who is in Australia to meet Microsoft's customers, joint venture partners and prime minister John Howard, said the launches of Microsoft's Windows 98 and a test version of Windows NT 5.0 were still on track to be launched unamended in mid-1998. This was despite a preliminary court ruling in December that Microsoft had to offer personal computer manufacturers versions of its Windows software with and without its Internet Explorer internet browser. The Justice Department took Microsoft to court last year charging that the world's leading software company was using its dominant position in computer operating systems to break into the market for Internet browsers in violation of a 1995 decree. Some analysts had thought after the initial court ruling that it may slow down the launches of Windows 98 and NT version five. "We expect to put it (Windows 98) into the marketplace in the middle of this year," Gates said. "We're getting far enough along in our Beta testing to say we're getting quite confident about doing that," he said. PBL, controlled by Australia's richest man Kerry Packer, is contributing content to their ninemsn.com site from its top-rating television stations and its magazines, while Microsoft is contributing its Expedia, Carpoint, Sidewalk and Investor software.