On the same day that Microsoft Corp. reported some of its worst financial results ever earlier this summer, a dozen buses left the company’s headquarters campus. During rush hour, they headed toward the highway as a phalanx of police officers on motorcycles shut down the on-ramps ahead, clearing the path to a local museum.

Microsoft had rented the museum for a private party and a screening of the most recent “Harry Potter” movie. After the film, the roughly 600 attendees received a free Xbox 360 video-game console.

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Behold the Power of Potter. Time Warner (TWX) yesterday disclosed it won’t put out the new Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” this November as originally planned, and instead will make it a Summer 2009, release–specifically, for July 17 of next year. That’s going to hurt Electronic Arts (ERTS), which will lose a 2008 holiday game title that represents about $150 million in revenue this year, according to analysts. The revenue and profit should come back the following year, though.

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