Does Vista's stunted growth hint at the death of the desktop?
,----[ Quote
| Is the desktop metaphor dead, replaced by web services like Google and
| Facebook? Or is Vista so bad that it's not worth buying?
|
| New data points to the latter suggestion, leaving Microsoft with two options.
| It can either view its sagging Vista sales as a testament to the incredible
| work of art that is Windows XP (gag). Or it can concede that Vista is a pile
| of potty.
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9838338-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Microsoft: Skip Vista, Buy the Stock?
,----[ Quote ]
| The net result is that MSFT doesn’t look like a bargain of a stock, but it
| probably shouldn’t be. The firm is a consistent cash producer with about as
| wide a moat as can be found in the tech sector. While there is no margin of
| safety and thus the stock isn’t a great investment, I believe it should match
| to slightly outpace the general market over the next two years.
`----
http://seekingalpha.com/article/58618-microsoft-skip-vista-buy-the-stock?source=yahoo
Related:
Microsoft counts on Vista to recharge stagnant stock
,----[ Quote ]
| There was a time in the 1990s when shares of Microsoft stock seemed to
| double every couple of years. 1996: college for the kids. 1998: a place
| on Whidbey. 1999: early retirement.
|
| Times have changed.
`----
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003437957_vista19.html
Commentary: Microsoft needs more than just buybacks to lift its shares
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft shares, which have been dormant for the last few years,
| have been looking up over the last couple months. The Dow industrials
| component has gained about 20% since hitting a 4-year low of $21.46 o
| June 13.
|
| To help move things along, Microsoft not only launched a $40 billion
| stock repurchase program that lasts through 2011, the company also said
| its previously announced 4-year, $30 billion stock buyback program was
| completed in just 2 years.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B685EFB89%2D5791%2D4E8B%2DAD6A%2D9688F5B6012A%7D&source=blq%2Fyhoo&dist=yhoo&siteid=yhoo
Microsoft's past stock options practice poses questions
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft in 1999 announced that it would end a policy of awarding
| options at monthly lows and said it would take a $217 million charge,
| though many details of that discontinued practice haven't been widely
| known, The Wall Street Journal said Friday.
|
| Those details raise questions about how Microsoft began the practice,
| what prompted the company to end it and whether the way the options
| were dated--at 30-day lows the month after they were
| granted--influenced other companies, it said.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6084617.html
Microsoft Hides Its Mobile and Business Apps Divisions
,----[ Quote ]
| The company is folding its two worst-performing divisions -- Microsoft
| Business Solutions (its business applications unit) and its Mobile and
| Embedded units -- into the Microsoft Business Division and Microsoft Home
| and Entertainment units, respectively.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1990243,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
How Much is Too Much?
,----[ Summary ]
| Microsoft says it will stick with Xbox. But with years of heavy losses
| behind it, the pressure's on for the gaming division to make good
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2006/id20061013_283856.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
http://tinyurl.com/yxdr4j
Microsoft stoic despite massive losses
,----[ Quote ]
| If you were to judge by the PR rhetoric, you'd think the 360 was
| an unstoppable commercial juggernaut. As usual though, PR lies.
`----
http://www.gamerscan.com/articles/06/10/09/microsofts.massive.losses/
A Dozen Stocks For '07
,----[ Quote ]
| Millen also thinks $36 billion in planned share buybacks
| will help the stock.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/05/stocks-markets-investing-pf-ii-cz_ag_1205stockpicks.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/yjzfbo
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.
`----
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/309852_software02.html
Loot: Redmond, We Have a Problem, Or, What's Wrong With the Xbox 360
,----[ Quote ]
| At this point, Former becomes impassioned. That's not fair, he says;
| we always saw this as a long-term venture. To which we reply that we
| were talking about the original Xbox, and while other divisions of
| the company throw off more profits in a single quarter than the
| entire $5 billion or so lost in the home and entertainment division
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| to date, the fact remains that, as we take-our-word-for-it predicted,
| the Xbox group has been spectacularly unprofitable for Microsoft.
| Hence, our heretofore unpublished Vietnam analogy. The rest of the
| night is a blur, but we digress.
|
| [...]
|
| The worst case scenario for Microsoft, then, is one in which the Xbox
| 360's bid for the mass market is blocked by the Wii for the next two to
| three years, at which point the aging and underpowered Wii gives way
| to a cheaper-than-it-is-now PS3 with a selection of AAA titles that's
| far wider than what the PS3 has at the moment; new installments of
| Playstation's own popular and casual-leaning games; and a slew of
| new franchises from Sony's much-larger studio operation.
`----
http://ncroal.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=533168
The Secret Failures of Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| There is no choice involved; even most Linux users are forced to pay for a
| Microsoft license in order to obtain a brand name PC.
|
| [...]
|
| They are bound to an oath to swear allegiance to Windows XP Professional,
| and must never mention Linux and Windows in the same breath. If they step
| out of line in any way, Microsoft dramatically raises their OEM licensing
| fees and sends them to indoctrination camp, where they face chairs being
| hurled at them by angry monkeys.
|
| [...]
|
| Why do Windows enthusiasts exibit much hostility to an obvious fact?
| Because if they admit that 80% of the company's revenues come entirely
| from an OEM tax, and not from any choice on the part of consumers...
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft's decade of investments in WinCE and Windows Mobile
| Smartphones have only barely matched the market share of Palm, which
| itself is a run down company out of ideas. Microsoft couldn't
| out-maneuver the incompetent Palm within a decade of trying; now both
| are ineffectually fighting over the dying PDA industry while Linux and
| Symbian slaughter them in the smartphone arena:
|
| Symbian 75%; Linux 14%; Microsoft 5%; Palm 5%.
|
| [...]
|
| (many more failures listed)
`----
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/2E6D9BB2-FE1B-4556-8389-67BD581FBCCC.html
|
|
