Software giant, Microsoft has said that its earnings have risen 6 per cent to US $ 17.41 billion for its third quarter compared to US $ 16.4 billion during the same period previous quarter.

The net income for the company fell to US $ 5.11 billion in the third quarter compared to US $ 5.23 billion in the same quarter in the previous year. The earnings per share fell compared to $0.60 versus $0.61 a year ago.

Bill Koefoed, general manager of Investor Relations for Microsoft said that corporate spending is increasing determining the company’s earnings. "Businesses continue to make long-term investments in the Microsoft platform and as a result, multi-year licensing as a percentage of our total revenue grew to approximately 40 percent," he said.

Microsoft said on Thursday that the sales of its flagship product, the Windows operating system increased by 4 per cent in the third quarter.

The company’s Windows division recorded a growth in sales of 4 percent from over the previous year to US $ 4.6 billion. The increase was backed by a high demand for licenses for Windows 7. It is the second time in six quarters that the company managed to record growth in the quarter over the previous year.