Friday, January 27, 2006 - Posts

Laughing at Bill Gates

Gates gives away a billion...almost

During a packed press conference in Davos, Bill Gates said his foundation would donate $900 million to fund the fight against tuberculosis, which claimed the lives of 1.6 million people in 2005. (This was no ordinary press conference: George Soros sat in the audience.)

After he made the announcement, the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who was sitting on the dais with Gates, asked why he didn't just give a round $1 billion? Everyone laughed, including Gates. But he didn't have an answer.

C'mon Bill, you've got the money. It's just $100 million more. You could probably put it on your American Express card. Bono will get you one of those new "Red" cards and part of your donation would make its way to fighting AIDS in Africa. Not a bad deal, eh?

I hope Paul Allen invites Bill to the Superbowl next Sunday and if he decides to invest $900 million in Michigan they'll all cheer!

Server and Tools Profits

Microsoft Reports Record Revenue

Microsoft announced revenue of $11.84 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, a 9% increase over the same period of the prior year, marking the highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history. Net income for the quarter was $3.65 billion, which grew 5% from $3.46 billion for the same quarter of the previous year. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.34. Net results included $108 million, or $0.01 per share, in tax benefits.

Server and Tools revenue grew 14% over the prior year on strength across the product line. The growth of SQL Server was robust with over 20% year over year revenue growth.

The Home and Entertainment division,  the Xbox Group, lost $293 million in the quarter

Demand for our desktop and server products from enterprise customers was particularly strong this quarter with significant sales and customer momentum from our recently launched server products,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “We recently conducted our annual customer satisfaction survey and remain committed to driving satisfaction improvements.  Our customers are responding very favorably to the value, quality, and improved security of our new product releases.