Responding to the fall in its share price in sympathy with Thursday’s $5.625 plunge in the Lotus Development Corp share price to $18.375 after the company warned that analysts’ estimates were way too high, Microsoft Corp said that its own international sales have remained solid in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year to June 30 and that it is pleased with sales of its latest Excel spreadsheet program for Windows – Lotus had said that its problem was weakness in the market for Windows spreadsheets rather than loss of share to Microsoft; Microsoft shares were off $2.25 at $69.75 on the Lotus announcement.
