Originally posted on TechCrunch:
Microsoft reported its fiscal second-quarter financial performance today, laid out its forecasts for its future performance and took questions from a number of analyst. It was a flurry of data, so let's take a moment and dig through the big points that matter.
The Bigger Picture
Microsoft met the street's financial expectations: The company's $26.5 billion in revenue and $0.71 in earnings per share were in-line. Its profit declined from the year-ago period, but that was expected due to prior one-time benefits, and the current fiscally deleterious impact of the company's phone assets that didn't exist in the year-ago quarter.
The company is down more than 4 percent in after-hours trading, drifting down further as time has passed. The company's earnings call, which can sometimes reassure investors, did not. That's likely due to the fact that Microsoft indicated on the call that it now expects to grow a mere 4 or...
