Microsoft 2nd quarter income flat

Microsoft battled through a weak PC market to post flat earnings in the final quarter of 2011, boosting sales of servers, Xbox games and its Office productivity software while trimming losses at its Bing search engine.

Net income in the company's second quarter through December came to 6.62 billion US dollars (£4.3 billion), down slightly from the 6.63 billion (£4.28 billion) a year ago. Earnings per share came to 78 cents (51p), up a penny from a year ago, as the outstanding share count fell.