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Microsoft Misses Quarterly Revenue Projection
monsterhead78 wrote to alert us to a BusinessWeek article discussing Microsoft's uncharacteristic miss of its own fiscal projections for the third quarter. From the article: "Three months ago, the software giant said it expected revenue for the period to come in between $9.7 billion and $9.8 billion. But when the company released results Apr. 28, it came up short. Microsoft (MSFT ) rang up just $9.62 billion in sales, a 5% increase from the year-ago quarter."
... missed by 0.009%. MSFT stock up by 3.48% on the day. Oh my! this is quite the story. I'm not quite sure that the lead story quite captures the essence of it though.
Because...well..it is? http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MSFT&t=1y
If Microsoft were a blue chip stock, this would be important. BUT ... Microsoft is a commodity stock - so missed earnings are pretty much irrelevant - because until recently Microsoft has not paid a dividend, and investment stocks usually react differently to bunged projections (cause it means you didn't get paid.) All Microsoft has to do is announce some vapourware and the stock price goes up. Such is the nature of commodities.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
I think you need to bone up on how to read financial statements and pick stocks.
For example, MSFT has a P/E of 24.5. Dor a good explanation of P/E, look here
By comparison, AAPL's is 40 and that other Slashdot darling, GOOG's, is at 88!
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Microsoft did release totally free XP SP 2 CDs. I'm on dial-up, and I got one. (That said, SP 1 wasn't that bad on dial-up if you're patient like me--I've downloaded a 400-some MB file before. Not pretty, but doable, so something under 100 certainly is, too.) However, with SP 2, I just decided to get the CD.
Really, it was free--even shipping. They didn't have it in any stores that I know of, but they certainly did have it on their website.
R.Mo
Visit http://www.securityfocus.com/ and read the ntbugtraq archives.
There is a reason why Windows Update exists and why it is giving you dozens of updates every month.
Put an un-patched windows 2000 or XP box on an open internet connection and you will be (silently) spreading viruses in minutes.
When I was working at Microsoft, the corporate network was so flooded that newly installed systems were instantly infected unless we took them off of the network before we installed and patched a windows 2000 system.