{"URL": "https://www.wired.com/1999/10/surprise-microsoft-made-piles", "heading": "surprise! microsoft made piles", "subheading": "for the umpteenth time in a row, microsoft earnings handily top the street's best guess. profits jump 30 percent.", "author": "reuters", "category": "business", "type": "article", "timestamp": "10.19.1999 02:20 PM", "text": "microsoft corp. profits, boosted by an \"awesome\" demand for personal computers, jumped 30 percent last quarter, easily beating expectations, the software giant said tuesday. the world's biggest software company posted net income of us$2.19 billion, or 40 cents per diluted share, for its fiscal first quarter ended 30 september, up from $1.68 billion or 31 cents a share a year earlier. revenues rose 28 percent to $5.38 billion from $4.19 billion.excluding onetime gains from the sale of subsidiaries, microsoft posted operating earnings of 38 cents a share compared with a first call consensus estimate of 34 cents and a comparable year-earlier figure of 28 cents.in a news release headlined with a reference to \"awesome pc demand,\" redmond's chief financial officer, <NAME>, credited strong corporate demand for the office 2000 upgrade package, as well as the windows nt server system and backoffice network applications.\"it does not appear that y2k had a significant impact on results,\" he said, referring to concerns about a slowdown ahead of the year-end date changeover. \"during the quarter, we also saw excellent pc unit growth, particularly in asia, and we expect that trend to continue in the december quarter.\"reflecting a continuing recovery from the regional economic downturn, revenues from asia rose 82 percent in the quarter to $593 million. microsoft also reiterated that its windows 2000 operating system, the successor to windows nt, is on track to be released for manufacturing by the end of 1999.shares of microsoft were trading at 88-3/4 after hours, up from a regular session close of 86-5/16.copyright"}