Microsoft’s Vista upgrade posted online
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday posted a major package of updates and security fixes for Windows Vista.
The world’s largest software maker said “Service Pack 1” will improve Vista’s reliability, security and performance, though many components already have been released during monthly updates since the operating system went on sale just over a year ago.
Industry analysts offered mixed reports on whether the updates make their Vista experience better.
Michael Cherry, of the research group Directions on Microsoft, said the time it took to copy files over a network “returned to normal” with SP1 – meaning the operation felt as speedy as it did using Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor.
But he said one thing SP1 didn’t fix was his ability to wake his PC from sleep mode, which he described as “a hit or miss affair.”
Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, said it took an hour or so to install the service pack on each of two of his computers, but once the machines were upgraded they both seemed “snappier” and less prone to crashing.
Software maker Adobe Systems Inc. beat Wall Street’s expectations in the first quarter with profits that rose 52 percent on continued demand for its design and Acrobat products.
For the three months ended Feb. 29, Adobe posted a profit of $219.4 million, or 38 cents per share, according to an earnings report after the close of trading Tuesday.
That was up from $143.9 million, or 24 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, Adobe earned 48 cents per share in the latest quarter. On the same basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected, on average, earnings of 45 cents per share on sales of $875.8 million.
Revenue jumped 37 percent to $890.4 million from $649.4 million in the first quarter a year earlier.
Visa Inc. raised $17.9 billion late Tuesday to complete the largest initial public offering in U.S. history and help prop up the wobbly financial services industry.
The world’s largest processor of credit and debit cards sold 406 million shares at $44 apiece to easily eclipse the previous U.S. record IPO of $10.6 billion set by AT&T Wireless eight years ago.
The IPO price topped the range of $37 to $42 per share that Visa set three weeks ago.
Visa shares, trading on under the “V” ticker symbol, are scheduled to begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange. The company will debut with a market value of about $36 billion.