Microsoft may cut its forecast for the year that started this month when it reports fourth-quarter earnings today, partly because of the piracy problem, Ursillo said. Marketing of illicit copies of the software is heightening the pressure from slowing U.S. growth and an increase in sales of lower-priced software versions, he said.
`Tough Battle’
The company still gets two-thirds of its sales in the U.S., and piracy has spurred Microsoft to increase offices and staff in emerging markets as a way to combat illegal software, Ballmer said in February.
Microsoft declined to comment on efforts to fight piracy. Spokeswoman Kristin Widing said the company’s software is pirated at about the same rate as the overall industry.
“The rate of growth of new PCs in markets where we either have lower prices and/or higher piracy is really quite dramatic versus developed markets, and not likely to change in the next few years,” Ballmer said at the financial analyst meeting last year.
