ANNOUNCER: Please welcome General Manager, Investor Relations, for Microsoft, Colleen Healy.

COLLEEN HEALY: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 2008 Financial Analysts Meeting. It is great to see you all here today. I know that involved travel for a lot of you. Thanks so much for making it out.

We are also having attendees via our live webcast, and we’d like to welcome those folks, et al., as well. We are streaming today’s events on the Microsoft Investor Relations Web site.

Throughout the day we’re going to look back at our performance and look forward to fiscal year ‘09 and beyond. As such, we will make forward-looking statements. You should refer to our SEC filings for risk factors related to our business. And we take no duty to update forward-looking statements.

For any non-GAAP financial information, you can go to the Microsoft Investor Relations Web site for reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures today.

Q4 capped off an outstanding year for Microsoft in fiscal year ‘08. For the year, revenue, operating income and EPS all grew double digits and exceeded the high end of guidance that we provided coming into the year. For fiscal year ‘09 we provided guidance where we expect to continue this momentum, post another year of double-digit growth for revenue and operating income, and grow earnings per share faster than revenue.

Today you’re going to hear about our plans for innovation, leadership, investments in growth. Specifically you’re going to hear about how the breadth of our business across geographies, customer segments and product life cycles are fueling growth.

Fiscal year ‘09 will be a year of mass adoption for Microsoft when you think about the broad spectrum of products that we have now in market and our sales force working hard to drive adoption.

You’ll also of course hear today about our plans for software and services.

Today’s lineup is going to start with Steve Ballmer kicking off the day. That will be followed by our business leaders: Robbie Bach, Kevin Turner, Bill Veghte, Stephen Elop and Bob Muglia. Each will drill into their business and provide you with the opportunities that they’re going after and how they’re going to capture those opportunities. Then Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie will take a view farther into the future on how we’re positioning ourselves to be leaders in technology and software plus services over the long term.

And Chris Liddell will wrap the day, putting what you’ve heard today in a financial context for driving shareholder value.

Throughout the day we’re going to take your questions, both live from the floor as well as through the CommNet. You can write and submit questions through the CommNet. As in past years, our executives are looking forward to chatting with you on our breaks, during lunch, and during the evening reception.

So a bit of housekeeping, just to acclimate you to the facilities and to the day. For those of you who are on site, Garth told you about CommNet and how you can access CommNet. On CommNet you can get PowerPoints that are going to be presented today, bios of the speakers, agendas, and we’re going to ask you to give us feedback rating how the day’s going for you so we can always improve this event for you in the future.

As our technical support indicated, if you have an issue accessing CommNet, you each have yellow flags in front of you — just go ahead and stand it up and someone from our technical team will come and help you out.

PowerPoint slides and transcripts from today’s event will be available on the Investor Relations Web site at your convenience when you get back into the office so that you can refer back to the day.

If you have not already had a chance to visit our product fair, which is happening just right across the hall, please do take a few minutes to do that during breaks or over lunch to look at our technologies that we’re demoing over there today.

And if you already have not had a chance to redeem your gift ticket for Microsoft Equip, you can do so at the reception desk where you checked in this morning.

You may have noticed already that there are large screens out in the halls. You can check market activity during the day on various tech stocks so that you can keep up with things even though you’re here with us today. There are also Internet kiosks set up throughout the building. You can check your e-mail, the latest news, market quotes, et cetera.

If you happened to drive a car here today, we don’t want you to be towed of course, so please make sure that you’ve registered your car at the registration desk.

Lunch, as in past years, will be served in the McKinley Room. It will be a buffet lunch where our executives will be dining with you. The tables for lunch will have stands with placards so you know which business group is sitting where, in case there’s a particular group where you’d like to drill down and ask questions. And then, as usual, we will also have our reception following the formal presentations this evening. Shuttle buses leave for the airport after the meeting and again after the reception. Shuttles to the hotels will leave after the reception. And if you need a taxi, you can arrange for one at the business center.

Throughout the day we are going to please ask you to complete the evaluation section on CommNet. When you do fill out an evaluation on the day or for a speaker, each time you do that you will be entered into a drawing to win some prizes. This year the prizes are four Xbox 360 Elites and two 80-gig Zunes.

In addition to today’s presenters, we also have with us the divisional and business group CFOs and other business leaders throughout the company. And the Investor Relations team of course is here and, as always, happy to assist you today and in the future. That’s Kevin Green, Zon Ellis, Charly Tracy, Debbie Kampton, Samantha Ward Emily Zander, Dennie Kimbrough, and our newest member, Todd Setcavage.

So, with that, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you our CEO, Mr. Steve Ballmer.

END

Due to the varying sound quality and subject matter of tapes, the information in this transcript may contain inaccuracies.