Microsoft’s revenue rose to $17.41 billion

Microsoft said Thursday that its revenue rose 6 percent to $17.41 billion in the first quarter of 2012 due to stronger sales of Windows. 

The company’s net income fell to $5.11 billion, or $0.60 per share, from $5.23 billion, or $0.61 per share, a year ago. 

In 2011's fourth quarter, Windows revenue was down 6% compared to the year before. 

Most of Microsoft's businesses posted solid sales growth compared with last year: 14% for the server and tools division; 9% for the business sector, which includes Office; 6% for online services; and 4% for Windows. 

“We saw great demand from enterprises this quarter,” said Microsoft investor relations director Lisa Nelson. 

U.S. Housing Fell 5.8% but Permit Rose 4.5% in Mar...

U.S. Housing declined in March but permit for future construction increased to their highest level in 3 1/2 years, said the Commerce Department on Tuesday. 

Housing starts to fell slightly 5.8 percent to 654,000 units last month from 694,000 in February.

Market expectations were for an increase to 705,000. The decline in housing starts in March was primarily the result of a 16.9% decrease in the volatile multiples component to an annualized pace of 192,000 from 231,000 last month, according to reports.

“From a trend perspective, it is still on a rising path. Tentative is the best we could say about this,” said chief economist Gregory Miller of Suntrust.

March’s decline in housing starts was the biggest percentage drop since April of last year, although most of the fall was in the volatile multi-unit category, which declined 16.9 percent.

Building permit increased by 4.5 percent to 747,000 units last month.

“The rise in permits kind of offsets the disappointing data,” said Omer Esiner, a market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.

Construction of single-family homes also, which made up71% of housing starts in March, dropped by 0.2 percent, according to sources. Meanwhile, multifamily homes posted ...

Citigroup’s Revenue Fell 1.7% from the Year-Ago

Citigroup Inc, one of the world’s largest companies and banks by total assets, announced Monday that it made a $2.9 billion profit for the first quarter of the year, or 95 cents per share.

According to sources, the bank’s revenue fell 1.7 percent from a year earlier but increased 13 percent from the previous quarter.

Citi also reported an increase in capital, which is important because the bank's request to raise its dividend or to buy back stock was rebuffed after the Federal Reserve's most recent stress test.

Citi's loan book grew 12 percent from a year earlier, to $514 billion.

“We have roughly 26% of our balance sheet right now tied up in either cash or highly liquid securities,” said John Gerspach, Citi’s chief financial officer.

“We would love to put our cash to work in loans, but we just don't see that level of demand at this point of time.”

Gerspach said that loan demand “is picking up” in the emerging markets.

Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said in a statement, “While the operating environment improved in the first quarter, there is still much macro uncertainty and we will continue to manage risk carefully.”

Facebook will buy Instagram for $1bln

Facebook, the biggest social network, announced Monday that it will buy the Instagram mobile photo-sharing application for about $1 billion in cash and stock. 

“I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. 

“Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.” 

According to sources, Instagram was founded in 2010 by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom and became the most popular free photo sharing application on the iPhone. Instagram released a version of its application for Google’s Android operating system last week. 

Instagram lets users take pictures with smartphones, retouch them with borders and filters, and then post the images on social networks.  

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” said Zuckerberg. 

“But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many ...

Avon Named Its New CEO

Avon Product Inc. announced Modnay that Johnson & Johnson executive Sherilyn S. McCoyit was named its new chief executive. 

Avon said Andrea Jung, who was the company’s chief executive for 12 years, will remain as chairman after McCoy takes over later this month.  

Ms. Jung came under fire for failing to stem the company's declines and wrap up a bribery investigation. 

David H. McConnell founded Avon in 1886. The company became a fixture in households across the country as its legions of "Avon ladies" went door to door selling makeup to family, friends and acquaintances. Its brands include Avon Color, Skin-So-Soft and mark. 

The company markets its products in more than 100 countries through about 6.4 million independent sales representatives. Its annual revenue is more than $11 billion. 

Avon’s shares dropped 3.4 percent to $22.65 on Monday. Last week, the company’s shares were about 26 percent from its 52-week high of $31.60 last May.