Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, a 5% increase over the results in the same period of the prior year. Operating income for the third quarter was $3.33 billion, compared to $1.28 billion in the prior year. Operating income for the third quarter includes $768 million related to legal charges, compared to $2.53 billion in legal charges in the prior year. Net income and diluted earnings per share for the third quarter were $2.56 billion and $0.23 per share, which included $0.05 of legal charges. For the previous year, net income and earnings per share for the third quarter were $1.32 billion and $0.12 per share, which included $0.17 of legal charges. Operating income, net income, and earnings per share amounts include stock based compensation expense.

"Despite a mixed enterprise software environment, the quarter played out largely as we expected and operating income and earnings per share results were in line with our expectations," said Scott Di Valerio, corporate vice president and corporate controller at Microsoft. "Given our optimism about the future with our strong product pipeline and the growth opportunities from our investments in innovative products and services, we expect increased revenue growth in fiscal 2006."