John Connors Guarded Quotations

OEM revenue was light as demand for business PCs remained slow in the quarter, and we remain guarded about near-term growth. However, PC demand appeared to pick up late in the quarter, and with the launch of Windows 2000, we are excited about the opportunity to help customers migrate to this new generation of platform products.

While we are enthusiastic about the break-through products and services the company will be delivering in 2001, we remain guarded about the near-term economic outlook and its impact on PC demand and technology spending,

Results were solid across all businesses, led by accelerating deployments of Windows 2000 Professional in the business sector and Windows Me in the consumer arena, ... While we remain guarded about worldwide economic conditions, we are extremely enthusiastic about our Windows 2000 generation of server products.