“With much easier comparisons from a devastating period last year and an upswing in PC sales, Microsoft posted solid third-quarter earnings today after the markets closed. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said it had revenue of $14.5 billion in the quarter ended March 31, a six percent rise from a year ago. Net income was $4.01 billion, or 45 cents a share. That’s despite forking over $78 million to Yahoo in the quarter, as part of its online search and advertising partnership with Yahoo. That handily beat Wall Street expectations of $14.4 billion and 42 cents a share.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-23/microsoft-amazon-com-de…
Those analysts set their expectations too high.
“Net income was $4.01 billion, or 45 cents a share. That’s despite forking over $78 million to Yahoo”
Uhm you do know that 78M USD is peanuts for MS? And you prove it yourself with the 4 billion figure –> that is less than 2% of their net income.
So there is no “despite” needed.