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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kahunabear who wrote (30176)	7/23/1998 11:18:00 PM
From: Kathleen capps	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Msft sees slower PC sales: Microsoft Sees Revenue Growth Slowing on PC Sales Seattle, July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., the top software maker, said revenue growth will slow in the fiscal year that began on July 1, dragged down by weaker personal computer sales and market saturation for some of its products. Revenue also will come under pressure from the turmoil in Asia, Chief Financial Officer Greg Maffei said at a meeting with financial analysts. The so-called year 2000 glitch, in which computers fail to recognize the year 2000, will put a damper on software sales, too, he said. Uncertainty over whether software programs can cope with the change in millennium will cause some companies to delay orders, he said. Microsoft also expects that saturation sales of some of its products, such as the Office 97 package of business software, will contribute to slower revenue growth. It does expect to sell more upgrades for these products, which bring in less revenue than new programs. Microsoft, which traditionally uses its meetings with financial analysts to lower expectations for its performance, warned that the new fiscal year will see heavy investments in the company's Internet ventures. In addition, its costs of goods sold will rise this year, after falling in recent years, he said. ''Growth of this company will not be as high in the future as it has in the past,'' Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Gates told analysts. ''The number of PCs are a big part of our model and that rate is slowing; that slows us down.'' Still, Microsoft is ''in the best position of any technology company,'' Gates said. The Redmond, Washington-based company gets the same amount of revenue for its software installed in new PCs regardless of the drop in PC selling prices, said Microsoft President Steve Ballmer. He declined to say how much Microsoft gets from each PC sold. Gates' comments were echoed by the characteristically cautious Maffei. ''Growth is coming down and down substantially from where we were in fiscal 1998,'' Maffei told analysts.