Recently, Microsoft announced that it was planning to offset the decrease in profit it had been registering over the previous months as the personal computer market was switching to low-cost netbooks.

Nevertheless, it did not give out any information concerning further cost cuts, while the company’s shares have plummeted to an 11-year low.

On Tuesday, at an analysts’ meeting that was held in New York, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer stated that the company would be offering versions of its Windows 7 operating system, which has been released only in beta so far, for netbooks, in an attempt to boost revenue.

As a result of Ballmer having said that Microsoft would not be resorting to accelerated cost cuts, as some investors had been expecting, the company’s shares went down by 3 percent.

Back on January 22, Microsoft announced that it was planning to lay off 5,000 workers, in order to save an annual amount of $1.5 billion in costs.

Avian Securities Jeff Gaggin stated that investors had voiced their disappointment at Steve Ballmer’s decision to postpone further cost cuts and at the fact that he had failed to announce that the board was to keep the company’s dividend the same.

Microsoft said that it would begin to ship a low-end version of the Windows 7 operating system for netbooks and also to enable users to upgrade their OS to more expensive editions.

Moreover, Ballmer stated that the company was still planning to team up with Yahoo Incorporated so as to take on rival search giant Google Incorporated, adding though that Microsoft was not interested in purchasing the ailing Yahoo.