Microsoft Expects Good Quarterly Profit

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday said it would report better-than-expected quarterly profits despite Asia’s economic woes and financial shortfalls at other major high-tech companies.

Intel, Compaq and Motorola all have warned of disappointing results, partly due to slack demand linked to the economic crisis in Asia and bloated inventories of products.

“Business remains quite good,” Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Greg Maffei said in a teleconference call, citing growth in U.S. and European demand for the software giant’s Office products, and continued demand for NT Server and BackOffice server applications. But he said that results should be slower in the last three quarters of this year.