Microsoft Corp shares fell in heavy trading after a wire report that its executive vice-president Steve Ballmer forecast research spending levels much higher than expected: the shares were off $1.0625 at $56.875 on volume of more than 2m shares after Ballmer was quoted as telling reporters in Paris that Microsoft planned to spend about $900m on research and development in the current fiscal year, compared with slightly more than the $700m projected by most analystsl; the report was carried by Dow Jones & Co, which quoted Ballmer saying that multimedia will be a major area of expansion for Microsoft incoming years, and that launch of Windows95 some time in the first half of next year is stimulating the creation of applications that exploit Windows95’s features; he warned that the targeted spending level on research and development would occur only if Microsoft manages to find suitably qualified software engineers, especially in the fields of databases and graphics but some hiring has begun; he worried about saturation of the personal computer software market and said European sales this summer were worrying while China, Korea and other markets in Asia were shaping up as major growth areas.
