Other business revenues, which include Converse Inc., NIKE Golf, Cole Haan Holdings Incorporated, NIKE Bauer Hockey Corp., Hurley International LLC, and Exeter Brands Group LLC, grew 15% to $600.9 million from $522.7 million last year in the same period.

- Pre-tax income increased 16% to $77.5 million for the quarter.
- On December 17, 2007, the company completed its sale of the Starter brand to Iconix Brand Group, Inc. resulting in a gain of $29 million which is included in third quarter other income.
- On February 21, 2008, the company announced it had reached a definitive agreement to sell Bauer Hockey to an investor group led by Kohlberg & Company and Canadian businessman W. Graeme Roustan for $200 million in cash. This transaction is expected to be completed before the end of the fiscal year.
- On January 31, 2008, Nike’s £285 million, all-cash offer for the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Umbro plc was approved by Umbro shareholders. The United Kingdom’s Office of Fair Trade gave regulatory approval on February 6, 2008 and on March 3, 2008 the acquisition was completed by Nike''s wholly-owned subsidiary, NIKE Vapor Ltd.

Gross margins were 45.1% compared to 44.2% for the same period last year.

- Selling and administrative expenses were 30.9% of third quarter revenues, compared to 31.7% last year.
- The effective tax rate for the quarter was 30.6% compared to 32.3% for the same period last year.

- Global inventories stood at $2.4 billion, an increase of 10% from February 28, 2007.
- Cash and short-term investments were $2.9 billion at the end of the quarter, compared to $2.3 billion last year.

- The company purchased a total of 5,570,300 shares for approximately $343.9 million in conjunction with the company’s four-year $3 billion share repurchase program approved by the Board of Directors in June 2006. As of the end of the third quarter the company has repurchased a total of 34.2 million shares for approximately $1.8 billion under this program.

Key questions from the third quarter earnings call conducted by Nike, Inc. on March 19, 2008.

Kate McShane (Citigroup): For the fourth quarter you have indicated that the growth in demand creation would be over 1/3. How much do you expect overhead to be up in the fourth quarter and what is the break down between demand creation to overhead and your SG&A?

Don Blair: We did not provide guidance directly on operating overhead and with respect to demand creation operating overhead. It is 1/3 demand creation and 2/3 operating overhead. Demand creation for the quarter was about $500 million and operational SG&A was $895 million.

Kate McShane (Citigroup): You just announced earlier in March the advertising you would be doing around the launch of the new NIKE Spark products. Have you seen the spending in the third quarter for that or will that also be a fourth quarter impact in SG&A?

Charlie Denson: That is going to be a fourth quarter impact.

Brad Cragin (Goldman Sachs): What are you seeing in the U.S. market?

Charlie Denson: What we are seeing and is something we are comfortable with and have seen before is in uncertain times people tend to go with the things that they know best and feel most comfortable with and we have seen some of our market shares start to increase. You have seen some of the quarterly numbers come through recently and we have benefited. We have had some great product in the market place and it continues to do well especially on the footwear side of things. We feel good about the overall health of the business. I referred to it in my prepared remarks as well that the discipline around inventory management and even in times of uncertainty making sure that we do not put too much product in the market place and that we are continuing to maintain that pull market that we so often refer to.

Brad Cragin (Goldman Sachs): Can you address the price value equation that you have referred to in some of the other markets?

Charlie Denson: The average selling price in footwear specifically is up a small amount but somewhat inconsequential in the overall numbers.

Mark Parker: We did take some surgical price increases in the United States. As we discussed before we looked at this on a style by style basis and we have monitored the sell throughs carefully and we feel good about where we are in terms of the pricing and the demand curve.

Brad Cragin (Goldman Sachs): You have been making incremental progress on the premium consumer experiences. Could you address your sports culture and women’s fitness category and talk about what may be coming down the pipe in terms of continuing to build those experiences forward?

Charlie Denson: Footwear is a strong part of our business. We have a lot of high performing what we call icon styles, Air Force One, The Dunk, a couple of them that are being worked on now and will be launched over the next year; Cortez specifically. It has been a successful formula for us and we feel good about that in the future as well and you will see even more of that. The other idea is as we continue to build out this category emphasis throughout the organization and actually into the market place I keep reminding people that we have not delivered our first product line generated from that organizational shift. You will start to see some of that as we move into this fall and then on to next year. I am excited about some of the things that are starting to percolate within the category organizations here both from a product standpoint and a consumer standpoint.

Robert Drbul (Lehman Brothers): Could you talk about Asia and China specifically in terms of the sustainability of the business?

Charlie Denson: We have spent a lot of time talking about this internally. I think as we gear up for Beijing one of the things that we have been focused on for two years plus is the idea that we are going to be there when everything else leaves. We have positioned ourselves in the market place and with the Chinese consumer with that specific intent. You are familiar with some of the campaigns that we have been running. We have been running a “Just Do It” message in China now for two years plus and I expect that to continue through the Olympics and well into next year. We feel good about where we are at in China. We are keeping an eye on the inventories both at retail and wholesale. I think the team there has done a fantastic job of managing the opportunity and the challenges that has come at them. One of the other things I feel good about is the team we have on the ground. They continue to deliver on expectations and beyond and we are in great shape going through there. Then as you move through to broader Asia to your point, we still feel bullish on Japan long term and we are starting to see the quality of the business improve. It has been a slower journey than we had anticipated or are comfortable with, but we still see the long term opportunities there. Post Beijing Japan is going to be well positioned for an acceleration of growth.

Robert Samuels (JP Morgan): What are you currently seeing with regards to inventory at retail and what are your retailers telling you about their expectations for the consumer for the remainder of the year?