Due to its failed aQuantive acquisition, Microsoft posted its first quarterly loss $92 million -- this week. “What would have been $5.3 billion in profit was wiped out from one bad deal,” MG Siegler writes on his paris lemon blog, referring to Microsoft’s $6.2 billion write-down of aQuantive. “Loss per share -- and this is the first time Microsoft reported a negative EPS in its history -- was $0.06,” TechCrunch reports. Still, revenue for the quarter -- $18.06 billion -- was up from $17.41 billion last quarter, and $17.37 billion in the fourth of 2011. “Aside from that one-time cost [of writing down aQuantive] Redmond is trending in the precise direction it wants to be,” writes The Verge. “The quarter's revenue figure represents an increase of 7% from the same time last year, with its quarterly operating income of $6.93 billion representing a twelve-percent increase.” Indeed, “the non-adjusted numbers for the quarter show a loss of six cents per share and revenue of $18.1 billion, but even with the write-down … Microsoft still reflected 4% growth in Q4 revenue year to year,” marvels ReadWriteWeb. What’s more, “Microsoft has a potentially big year ahead with the release of Windows 8, Office 2013 and presumably the next version of SharePoint,” RWW adds. “That’s a lot of cash to be raked in, especially given the strong numbers coming in from Windows 7.” Either way, “this has been an interesting time at Microsoft's Advertising, following recent layoffs and industry grumbles that the company might be abandoning its ad business,” Business Insider notes.