LOS ANGELES ? Microsoft Corp. battled through a weak PC market to post flat earnings in the final quarter of 2011, boosting sales of servers, Xbox games and its Office productivity software while trimming losses at its Bing search engine.
Net income in the company's second quarter through December came to $6.62 billion, down slightly from the $6.63 billion a year ago. Earnings per share came to 78 cents, up a penny from a year ago, as the outstanding share count fell.
Revenue rose 5 percent to $20.89 billion.
The earnings reported after the close of trading on Wall Street Thursday beat expectations of analysts polled by FactSet, who were looking for 76 cents per share. But sales were below the $20.92 billion expected.
Microsoft's shares rose 54 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $28.66 in after-hours trading.
Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC, said cost controls and a second-consecutive quarter of reducing losses at Bing helped results. Continuing growth in its Office software division was also encouraging, while the decline in the PC market and its negative impact on the flagship Windows operating system was expected.
"People were afraid it was going to be much, much worse," he said.
Company watchers had been concerned that a shortage of hard disk drives from flood-ravaged Thailand would hit PC sales and hurt sales of the world's most-used operating system, Windows. Microsoft's position as a leading operating system maker is also facing challenges as people use more tablet computers like Apple Inc.'s iPad and mobile devices using Google Inc.'s Android system.
Microsoft is looking ahead to the release of Windows 8, an operating system that should operate similarly over PCs and mobile devices. A beta version is due out next month.
CEO Steve Ballmer, in a statement, called the quarter's results solid even as the company "prepares for a launch year that will accelerate many of our key products and services."
He said that the company has gotten positive reviews of its Metro style design that will unify the way consumers interact with Windows-based phones, computers, tablets and even televisions this year.
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