Liddell destroying Microsoft from within
,----[ Quote ]
| Ironically the $45 billion bet on Yahoo, partly funded by debt, comes just as
| Microsoft is finally starting to make good on its decade-old promise of
| earning money beyond Office and Windows.
|
| [...]
|
| In the end (returning to this blog’s ostensible subject) this is a very good
| deal for open source. It takes Microsoft’s eye off the competitive ball. It
| tells everyone inside Big Green to forget about intrapreneurship. It eats up
| the cash Microsoft had to threaten Linux with.
|
| But this is going to end as all tragedies must, with tears. Steve Ballmer is
| getting taken for the biggest ride of his life, and one day he’s going to
| find himself dumped out of the limo by the side of the road wondering what
| happened.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2007
Microsoft is in deep trouble, so it's filing for software patents before it
shall become a troll.
Days ago:
CFO brings philosophy of change to Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) decision in 2005 to hire Chris
| Liddell, a New Zealander working in the paper industry, to fill the company's
| open job of chief financial officer seemed like an odd choice.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN0631875320080208?rpc=44
Microsoft's $528 million Washington tax break
,----[ Quote ]
| When I heard that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had invoked the
| phrase "creative capitalism" at last month's World Economic Forum in Davos,
| Switzerland, it reminded me how Microsoft avoids paying taxes on
| Washington-made software by selling it through Nevada. Since 1997, I
| estimate, the company has avoided paying more than $528 million in state
| taxes while racking up $92 billion in profit and distributing more than $42
| billion in dividends to shareholders. Microsoft's creative capitalism has
| deprived Washington state a lot of tax revenue it needs to pay for critical
| infrastructure such as replacing the aging 520 bridge that many of its
| employees use to get to and from corporate headquarters in Redmond.
`----
http://www.crosscut.com/microsoft/11167/Microsoft's+%24528+million+Washington+tax+break/
Microsoft's Botox fantasy: Time to burn the boats
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft could learn a lesson from a different explorer to the Americas,
| Hernan Cortez, whose policy was to "burn the boats." It's understandable that
| Microsoft would cling to its profitable past. That past churns out billions
| of dollars in profits each quarter. Who wouldn't want that?
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9868952-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Recent:
Microsoft and the American way
,----[ Quote ]
| An interesting side-note on the potential Yahoo-Microsoft deal: Microsoft has
| only $17B in cash/liquid reserves, but has bid $44.6B for Yahoo.
`----
http://warpedvisions.org/2008/02/03/microsoft-and-the-american-way/
Microsoft says to borrow money for Yahoo deal
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its
| history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo
| Inc.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0455692920080205
Was Vista a disaster for Microsoft?
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently Microsoft posted their profits for 2007. Despite Vista being one of
| the worst disasters to hit the computer systems markets since Windows ME,
| Microsoft seemed to come out way ahead... or did they?
|
| Profits don't always tell the full story about how a company performs, and
| I'm not talking about Enron.
`----
http://zerias.blogspot.com/2008/01/was-vista-disaster-for-microsoft.html
Dueling Fools: Microsoft Bear
,----[ Quote ]
| You don't need to watch the 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' commercials to see that
| Microsoft is taking a beating. You see it in the company's financials where
| its online unit, incredibly, is operating at a loss; overheating Xbox 360
| consoles find the company taking a huge warranty hit for a system losing
| market share to the Wii; and the upgrade wave of its flagship operating
| system has been more of a ripple than a tsunami. That last point is
| important. This was supposed to be Microsoft's final feast, the major last
| hurrah for its Windows Vista operating entry and its Office 2007 suite of
| applications before the inevitable embrace of cheaper open source operating
| systems and Web-based apps... In fact, even Microsoft will tell you that its
| fortunes peaked several months ago.
`----
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2008/01/23/microsoft-bear-argument.aspx
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
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
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
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/
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
Wis. Bill to Require Tax Loophole Data
,----[ Quote ]
| Wisconsin Bill Would Require More Reporting on Tax Loopholes
|
| [...]
|
| A message left with Microsoft was not immediately returned.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071219/wi_corporate_taxes.html?.v=4
Ecuador Tax Agency Closes Microsoft Branch Offices For 7 Days
,----[ Quote ]
| "We have twice requested balances, payment reports and complete tax
| information, but the company hasn't given it to us, so in accordance with our
| laws we have proceeded with the closure," the SRI official in charge of the
| proceeding said.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200710041610DOWJONESDJONLINE000810_FORTUNE5.htm
Microsoft Office raid in Hungary
,----[ Quote ]
| "Such behavior could lead to the exclusion of competitive products from
| the market and violate European Union rules, according to the authority
| known as the GVH."
`----
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/26/ap3957835.html
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
|
|
