In news that Microsoft would probably rather keep out of the public eye and away from the Department of Justice, the company has finally overtaken IBM Corp as the largest software company by revenue, after its recent fourth quarter results showed $4bn of sales. While IBM’s second quarter, announced on Monday brought in only $3.2bn worth of software revenues, it’s third largest business after hardware and services, if the annual figures are estimated, 1998 will be the first year that Microsoft exceeds IBM. But in terms of market capitalization, Microsoft dwarfs IBM with a valuation of $290bn, while IBM is a comparatively puny $113bn. In the latest quarter Microsoft managed $1.36bn in net profit on $4bn, while IBM brought in $1.45bn on revenue of $18.82bn, nearly a fifth of the margin.
