Microsoft Corp. shares dropped more than 11 percent Friday, their biggest percentage decline in almost six years,

The stock, a component of the Dow Jones Industrials Average, fell 3.10 U.S. dollars to 24.15 one day after the company reported fiscal third-quarter profit and sales that lagged Wall Street expectations.

The drop at one point was the largest one-day loss since Microsoft lost a key U.S. antitrust court ruling in 2000, and reduced the company's market worth by more than 33 billion dollars.

More than half a billion shares traded hands Friday, the second-highest volume in Microsoft's two decades as a public company.

The maker of the ubiquitous Windows computer operating system and Office business applications said it would spend more on other software, as sales growth of its two big products slows.

Microsoft "dropped a bomb on investors with ridiculously high levels of spending" for next year, according to Credit Suisse analyst Jason Maynard.

The Richmond, Washington-based company, didn't provide specific estimates for its spending plans, but analysts estimated Microsoft would spend as much as 2 billion dollars more than they'd expected in the coming fiscal year.

The spending plans prompted Microsoft to issue a profit forecast for its upcoming fiscal year that was well below analyst estimates.

Friday's stock drop wiped out more than 3 billion dollars in wealth for Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates, who saw his stake cut to 23.6 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua