Microsoft made public its third fiscal quarter financial reports, showing a record revenue of $14.45 billion, up slightly from the $14.39 billion it gained in the same period last year. Microsoft appeared satisfied with the earnings and justified that the rather small increase from last year is due to the release of Windows Vista in early 2007 when the majority of sales were made. The profit however, diminished this year, mostly because of the $1.42 billion fine that the European Union gave the company earlier this year in an antitrust case.

The revenue for this quarter generated by the sales of entertainment software and hardware such as the Xbox 360 console has increased 68% over last year, while the server software revenue has also increased by 18%.

Microsoft's CFO, Chris Liddell mentioned that the OEM revenue dropped 25% mostly because the shipments of unlicensed PCs in Asia and several other countries has increased over the past months. Liddell said Microsoft will have to continue investing into antipiracy programs because piracy remains a tough matter for the software giant.

For the next fiscal year, which ends in June 2009, Microsoft expects sales of up to $68 billion.