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To: w0z who wrote (2187)	4/21/1999 7:39:00 AM
From: EPS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3813

Greg Maffei, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said in a telephone interview that these two special items essentially canceled each other out in terms of earnings per share. Maffei said the well-known problems of PC vendors like the Compaq Computer Corporation or I.B.M. did not reflect weakening demand over all. Microsoft, whose Windows 98 program runs on 90 percent of new personal computers, saw a 29 percent increase in sales of operating systems and applications preinstalled on new computers. Most of this was due to increased PC shipments, but some was due to a shift to Windows NT, which costs more, and more application sales, he said. "Not to speak ill of our partners, but I think they had their own operational ills in each case that do not speak to the overall health of the market," Maffei said. "A few highly visible guys might have had less than stellar results, but I don't think that speaks to overall demand. There was a lot of talk that the PC market is in deep decline, but we didn't see that," he said. Microsoft expects PC shipments to grow 16 percent to 17 percent, he said. search.nytimes.com