On Dec 10, 8:09 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> ____/ Rex Ballard on Monday 10 December 2007 18:05 : \____
>
> > While Microsoft issues SEC filings in which they claim 40% increases
> > over prior year (compared to XP sales in the previous year)
>
> They are moving money between the 'buckets'. Also mind the fact that huge
> buybacks began a year ago.
>
> Last Wednesday (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/07/open_season_seven/),
> some of this was discussed. They are just cooking the books.
Having trouble following this link. It opened to something unrelated.
> Don't be fooled by numbers. Even the stagnating Dell reported 'huge' increases,
> but the stock fell about 10%. People just assume that companies hide the real
> picture, which they do.
Did Dell report huge profit increases on Dell computers in the last
quarter? It's possible, the prices hadn't completely eroded, and the
year-ago quarter was just prior to the official release of Vista.
Many customers were holding off new PC purchases until after the
release of Vista.
IIRC, the big gift last year was HDTV and HD video equipment including
DVD and Blu-Ray players. Dell was doing very well in the HDTV market.
> Read this:
>
> Software Notebook: Microsoft's cash pile isn't what it used to be
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | But Microsoft has taken a series of steps to reduce its cash
> | balance. Specifically, by Microsoft's count, the company has
> | paid out nearly $100 billion through dividends and repurchasing
> | its own stock in the past five years.
> `----
Normally dividends and stock buy-backs would increase the price of a
stock. Microsoft is just setting a "price floor" for it's stocks. It
seems that most of these repurhases have been purchases of stock
directly from Bill and Steve. For a while, they were cashing in a
million shares a day. Of course, they could probably cash in a
million shares a day for a few years before they were "sold out". And
having Microsoft repurchase the shares directly assures that there
isn't a take-over or proxy fight.
> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/309852_software02.html
>
> Remember that Microsoft /sells/ software. No subscription. It hasn't forced
> people to 'upgrade' for quite some time and it gives things like Vista away
> for a low price (almost nothing), due to GNU/Linux.
The Business division is now getting a substantial portion of it's
revenue from support programs. In effect, businesses lease their
licenses and get free updates and improved support for Windows,
Office, and other popular applications such as Visio, and Project.
Many businesses aren't aware that Microsoft can disable their licenses
if a company fails to renew their support agreements. This includes
Office, Visio, and Project.
My guess is that Microsoft is treading carefully in that mine field
though.
> --
> ~~ Best of wishes
> Roy S. Schestowitz | Linux: just set it and forget about ithttp://Schestowitz.com | RHAT Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
> 01:05:01 up 13:53, 3 users, load average: 0.92, 1.09, 1.26
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