Microsoft investors are pleased that the software giant has a rosy future, but yesterday's results indicate that things are not going to be good until 2009.

Redmond told Wall Street that next year it would have strong worldwide sales and would overpower hiccups in the U.S. economy. However, shareholders seem to have taken a glass half empty approach and only looked at Microsoft's short-term predictions that it would have weaker than expected sales in the fourth quarter. Microsoft's share price dropped by five percent.

Microsoft said that that it will have worked out what it is going to do with Yahoo by the weekend. In the quarter ended March 31, Microsoft's profit fell 11 percent to $4.39 billion, or 47 cents per share, from $4.93 billion, or 50 cents per share, in the same period last year when the software maker reported more than $1 billion in deferred revenue tied to delays in the launch of the Windows Vista.