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[News] [Rival] Microsoft Analyst on Microsoft Approaching Debt

  • Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Analyst on Microsoft Approaching Debt
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:25:30 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Yahoo's Way Out

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft will have to go into debt to buy Yahoo—at least $10 billion by 
| reasonable estimates, assuming the deal is half cash and half stock and 
| Microsoft wants to leave some operating capital in the bank. That debt is the 
| weakness in Microsoft's offer. A year ago—even a month ago—the debt wouldn't 
| have been much of a problem. But there's a huge credit crunch going on in the 
| US right now that got a whole lot worse in just the past week.     
| 
| Banks are seeing real problems in areas like LBO, or leveraged buy-out, debt 
| that along with problems with commercial mortgages and bonds are putting a 
| real squeeze on credit. I'm sure Microsoft is a good credit risk, but there 
| still has to be money to lend. And Microsoft might look like a whole lot less 
| of a good risk should the company have to borrow more to buy Yahoo.     
`----

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/yahoos_way_out.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535

...Not as wealthy as Microsoft wishes you to believe. Many money burners (XBox,
Zune, Web, antitrust, briberies, dumping) cannot be balanced by just one of
two cash cows.

[Microsoft Employee:] Microsoft's Yahoo! Acquisition is Bold. And Dumb.

,----[ Quote ]
| I was on the internal Microsoftie bandwagon that Steve Ballmer was steering 
| not too long ago that an acquisition of Yahoo! didn't make sense for 
| Microsoft. So when the unsolicited offer went through, I was like a whole 
| bunch of other confused senior people looking around trying to figure out 
| what changed and why this suddenly was the right thing to do and to bet the 
| company on.     
`----

http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsofts-yahoo-acquisition-is-bold.html


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/


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


Top 10 Stocks With Big Insider Buying, Buybacks

,----[ Quote ]
| One of the primary goals of Stockpickr.com is to allow everyday investors a 
| look at what the big guns are buying. Often, we see a big-name investor 
| loading up on a particular stock. This is usually a good sign, because you 
| know that person put a lot of time and due diligence into that process.   
| 
| But when that same company announces that an insider has purchased a large 
| chunk of stock or, even better, the board announces a new large share-buyback 
| program, that usually seals the bullish case for the stock.   
`----

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/newsanalysis/stockpickr/10401207.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&amp;cm_cat=FREE&amp;cm_ite=NA


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


Related:

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/


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


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


Microsoft's Bach sold more stock before Xbox news

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. executive Robbie Bach sold $3 million more in company stock 
| during the period leading up to an announcement about a costly flaw in its 
| Xbox video game console than previously reported, according to a filing 
| Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.   
`----

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsofts-bach-sold-additional-stock/story.aspx?guid=%7BBECA3A50-EF33-4161-A111-A43BDC8B0462%7D&siteid=yhoof

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