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Microsoft records first quarterly loss in its history

05:33am | Fri, July 20, 2012

Computing giant Microsoft has made the first quarterly loss in its history after it wrote off  some of  the value of  its online advertising business. 
The loss came after it wrote down the value of  Aquantive by 6-point-2 billion dollars which failed to bring the profits expected by Microsoft. 
That led to a 492 million dollar loss in the three months to the end of  June, compared with a profit of  5-point-9 billion a year ago. 
Microsoft has not made a loss since it joined the stock market in 1986. 
It took over Aquantive in 2007 but it struggled to compete with rival Google. 
Microsoft is doing well in other areas, despite the decline in popularity of  its Windows operating system, which dominated the personal computer market for years. 
Revenue for the three months to June rose by 4% to just over 18 billion dollars.