Windows 8 Off to Hot Start: 40M Licenses Sold in First Month

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since launch on October 26, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows unit.

The new operating system is outpacing sales of Windows 7 at the same stage of its life, said Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of the Windows business, speaking at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse.

Reller was named as one of two executives to run the Windows unit after president Steven Sinofsky unexpectedly left two weeks ago. Julie Larson-Green heads the engineering side of Windows.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)