Microsoft's Windows division reported strong consumer demand but more muted growth from corporate customers.
That didn't mesh with the high expectations recently set by Intel Corp. and other big tech companies. Intel's net income nearly quadrupled on strong sales of chips for corporate PCs and servers.
Specifically, investors predicted better sales in Microsoft's server division, and expected companies to have placed advance orders for more new software, said Andrew Miedler, an Edward Jones analyst, in an interview.
During a conference call, Microsoft CFO Peter Klein tried to rein in expectations for the pace of a recovery for software companies.
"If you think about what's happened over the last year, the first thing that got hit and decreased earliest and fastest was hardware, and that's what's coming back first," Klein said. "Over the course of calendar 2010 and certainly into 2011 you'll start to see the growth in the overall IT (information technology) spend."
Microsoft's stock fell $1.15, or 3.7 percent, to $30.24 in extended trading Thursday. Before results were released, the stock gained 6 cents to close at $31.39. Continue: http://asurl.net/99o
