Feeling the heat at Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that. Perhaps Google on that layer, although frankly speaking,
| most of what we have there is upside. We're small and they're big. (With)
| most things, we're big and the other guy is small, so we have more to lose
| than gain. In this case, we have more to gain than to lose with Google.
`----
http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
No, not Apple, not IBM, not Sun, and not that 'open' cuddly thingie Microsoft
pretends to be a part of. It's Linux and the GPL that Ballmer and his lackeys
are scared of. Did you hear this, Apple users?
Related:
Can Ballmer pilot Microsoft through a changed tech course?
,----[ Quote ]
| Can Ballmer steer Microsoft out of the roadblocks?
|
| The highly competitive Ballmer, you might say, is the man who cried "nice."
| And like the boy who cried wolf, no one believed him. The software giant's
| attempt to make nice with much of the developer community by opening up its
| APIs for key products was greeted with a jaundiced eye by regulators at the
| powerful European Commission.
|
| However sincere Microsoft's stated change of heart may be, it is becoming
| clearer and clearer that Microsoft -- which knows it has to change -- is
| still struggling to find a fresher path.
|
| What's a poor CEO to do?
|
| Now that Bill Gates has effectively left the building, Ballmer is free to
| transform Microsoft, a job made all the tougher by the enormous reservoir of
| mistrust the company has engendered over the years.
|
| Case in point: the open APIs. Microsoft will give its competitors free access
| to the application programming interfaces and protocols it uses to ensure
| interoperability between its own products, a very significant change in
| business practices.
`----
http://weblog.infoworld.com/tech-bottom-line/archives/2008/02/microsoft_open.html
EU May Fine Microsoft Over Antitrust Case, People Say
,----[ Quote ]
| The fine may be announced as soon as Feb. 27, said the people, who declined
| to be identified because the decision isn't public. Microsoft said in a Jan.
| 24 U.S. regulatory filing that the penalty may be as much as 1.5 billion
| euros ($2.2 billion).
`----
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=MSFT:US&sid=aG8SwG8llTmM
Microsoft's Last Big Beat: Internet Domination or Death
,----[ Quote ]
| What can $44.6B USD mean? Well, for Microsoft (MSFT) it may mean the cost of
| survival.
`----
http://seekingalpha.com/article/63876-microsoft-s-last-big-beat-internet-domination-or-death?source=yahoo
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
Will Microsoft Survive the Next 10 Years?
,----[ Quote ]
| I am not really an expert in this but when I read all the negative
| headlines and articles I ask myself if Microsoft really will survive
| the next 10 years.
|
| [...]
|
| I am pretty sure that the Open Source Community, the new Ubuntu,
| Google and of course Apple are those companies that are ready for
| our century and they will get more and more people that know what
| they really want.
`----
http://websquirrel.blogspot.com/2007/03/will-microsoft-survive-next-10-years.html
P. Graham: Microsoft is Dead
,----[ Quote ]
| A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking
| to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo.
| I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of
| Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media
| company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face
| and realized he didn't understand. It was as if I'd told him how much
| girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 80s. Barry who?
|
| Microsoft? He didn't say anything, but I could tell he didn't quite
| believe anyone would be frightened of them.
`----
http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
Microsoft's DreamSpark – What a Giveaway
,----[ Quote ]
| The rest of the $44.6bn (£22.3bn) deal would be financed with an undisclosed
| amount of credit.
|
| What that means is that it must squeeze as much money as it can from its
| operations to fund that debt and still pay dividends to shareholders, who
| will be looking for some payback from the Yahoo takeover. Giving away
| software is the last thing it would want to do in these circumstances, and
| the DreamSpark announcement shows just how worried it is about the future.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-dreamspark-%E2%80%93-what-giveaway
|
|
