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Microsoft's $40 Billion On Hand
eMilkshake writes "CNN/Money magazine report here that Microsoft has more liquid reserves than 'Ford, ExxonMobil and Wal-Mart have combined' and 'enough to buy the entire airline industry -- twice. Or all the gold in Fort Knox, four times over. It is enough to buy 23 space shuttles or every major professional baseball, basketball, football and hockey team in America.' This is thanks to (according to WinInfo Update) the fact that 'Microsoft handles its investments with an inhouse software application called--seriously--the Catastrophe Hedging Program 2.5.' I wonder what I would do with $40 billion?"
I wish I had a beowulf cluster of that!
Link.
(Hey hundred plus posts and no beowulf post?)
Peter: "What would you do if you had a million dollars?"
Lawrence: "I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man."
Peter: "That's it? If you had a million dollars, you'd do two chicks at the same time?"
Lawrence: "Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a million dollars I could hook that up, cause chicks dig a dude with money."
Peter: "Well, not all chicks."
Lawrence: "Well the kind of chicks that'd double up on me do."
Peter: "Good point."
- Office Space
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Microsoft's enormous cash reserves may constitute an illegal tax shelter. See here and here for more details.
And I REFUSE to believe that DOS/Win3.1/Win32 was absolutely the best, most marketable product during that period...okay, it may have been the best, but was it "97% of the market" best? I just don't believe so--I mean look how quickly Linux has stormed the scene.
Sorry, but Linux is not anywhere close to being as good for the average dumb computer user as windows. People will always like it because of its simplicity, which is its weakness for those who "get" technology.