Slashdot Mirror
Why is Microsoft Making its Own Life Difficult?
sebFlyte asks: "Asking Slashdot readers what they think of Microsoft's methodology and ethos might seem like a silly thing to do, but a ZD-Net article raises some interesting points. The main one is that: 'Microsoft's behaviour is technically, morally and practically indefensible. It could publish its CIFS specification tomorrow if it so chose, an act that would correspond closely to the spirit and letter of the European decision. The company would then be free to compete through the simple process of making better products, something it claims to favour, while also encouraging precisely the sort of interoperability it says is missing.' The question I'm curious to canvas opinion on is why Microsoft is taking an attitude that is believed by so many to be damaging to their market position."
Keep in mind that Bill Gates didn't start the company by writing an OS, he did it by buying one.
Wrong. He started the company by writing a BASIC interpreter. And he developed it on a university mainframe on university time.
A small nit perhaps.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
I am no expert, by Yahoo! finance is always handy for this sort of thing:
Total revenue is up about 28%, and gross margin has moved about the same amount, over the past three years. (Working from their last end-of-year, June '04)
R&D is up about 80%
SA&G (this includes marketing) is up about 91%
These added operating expenses seriously cut into operating income bewteen '03 and '04, cutting about 24% over the three year period
Insiders have sold (net) 31,000,000 shares over the past 6 months. (this is about 3% of M$'s shares outstanding.) BillG has, in this week alone, announced a planned sale of $100,000,000 in MS shares.
On the other hand, looking at the balance sheet.
M$ now has around $16 billion in cash (they've spent about half of this since Jne '04 according to the cash flow, but I haven't been playing close attention, so damned if I know what they bought.)
I'm not sure what any of this means, but it's clear they're taking a big risk on marketing, and Bill would rather have his paper wealth somewhere else.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
My point is, maybe the only useful spec is the code, which MS is unlikely to share.
(Anyone able to find the quote?)