Microsoft released fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday which missed Wall Street estimates and reported its first decline in full-year revenue in the company's 34-year history.

For the quarter ended June 30, the software giant reported earnings of $3.05 billion, or 34 cents a share, down from $4.3 billion, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue was down 17 percent, to $13.1 billion from $15.83 billion. Analysts had expected Microsoft to post revenue of $14.37 billion.

The latest results included $193 million in legal charges, $108 million of impairments to investments and $40 million in additional severance-related charges. Together, these items cut earnings by 2 cents a share.

Our business continued to be negatively impacted by weakness in the global PC and server markets, said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft, in a statement.

For the full year, Microsoft posted a 3 percent decline in revenue to $58.44 billion and an 18 percent tumble in net income to $14.57 billion.

Due to the global recession and a slumping PC market, Microsoft has suffered a number of historic lows the past seven months. Earlier in January, it initiated large-scale layoffs for the first time in its history.

Sales of its flagship Windows software have also dropped for the first time ever, as consumers and businesses cut back on PC purchases during the economic downturn.

Shares of Microsoft fell 8 percent in after hours trading.

Microsoft Dell Yahoo