Microsoft reports first quarterly loss

Microsoft posted its first quarterly loss in its 26 years as a public company as it declared a struggling online ad business a bust and prepared for one of the biggest product updates in its history.

The software giant had warned two weeks ago that it would take a $6.2bn charge in the April-June quarter because its 2007 purchase of online ad service aQuantive failed to help it compete with Google. The amount reflected the bulk of the $6.3bn acquisition cost.