Microsoft Corp. today announced record revenue of $6.59 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2000, an 8 percent increase over the $6.11 billion for the same quarter last year. Net income and diluted earnings per share were $2.62 billion and $0.47.

"Strong customer demand for Windows® 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and our family of .NET Enterprise Servers drove the quarter's record results. We made outstanding progress against our competitors in building mission-critical business solutions for large enterprises," said John Connors, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "While we are enthusiastic about the break-through products and services the company will be delivering in 2001, we remain guarded about the near-term economic outlook and its impact on PC demand and technology spending."

Sales of the Windows family of operating systems reached record levels in the quarter, driven primarily by strong performances from Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server. BP Amoco plc, Danish pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk, and the US Army Medical Command are among the many recent examples of a broad range of customers who are aggressively deploying Windows 2000 Professional as the standard client operating system within their organizations.