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Microsoft Sees IBM as Biggest Threat

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the steve-jobs-chuckles-quietly dept.

Anonycat writes "Bill Gates gave an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, claiming that IBM is the rival company Microsoft has their sights set on. From the article: 'People tend to get over focused on one of our competitors ... We've always seen that ... I'm never going to change the press' view about what the cool company to write about is. That's Google number 1 and Apple number 2 ... [IBM has] four times the employees that I have, way more revenues than I have.'"

4 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. For a company that hates IBM... by Anonycat · · Score: 5, Informative

    From page 2 of the article: Also, IBM -- along with Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sony -- has developed the Cell microprocessor that will power Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console, a competitor to the Xbox 360, Microsoft's next-generation gaming unit. Who makes the chips for the Xbox360, again?

  2. Size matters... by hhr · · Score: 5, Informative
    Wow. You have to wonder what all those people at IBM do and marvel at how efficient MSFT and Google are.

    Google: Number of employees.. 4183 http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/facts.html
    Net earnings: $1.297 billion.
    Revenus $5.25 billion

    IBM: Number of employees...369277 http://www.networkworld.com/news/financial/ibm.htm l
    Net earnings: $7.797 billion.
    Revenues: $94 billion

    MSFT: Number of employees... 57000 http://www.networkworld.com/news/financial/microso ft.html
    Net earnings: 12.867 billion.
    Revenues $40.340 billion

  3. Re:Does Bill think Everyone is a Fool ? by EraserMouseMan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google is it's biggest rival in the Search Engine field. That's the only place. Google does not currently offer MS any competition in any of Microsoft's main software businesses (Operating Systems and Office Productivity).

  4. Actually, he's probably right. by ErichTheRed · · Score: 4, Informative

    IBM today isn't the IBM it was in the 90s or 80s. They're still a technology company at the core, but they're doing a smart thing by becoming more of a services company. Lately, they've been turning themselves into another one of the "buzzword-compliant" consulting firms. Those companies (EDS, Accenture, BearingPoint, whatever) make boatloads of high-margin deals and huge profits...more than selling servers and mainframes could ever produce. Companies routinely cut multimillion-dollar checks for "strategic advice" from an army of new graduates who don't mind travelling 360 days of the year!!

    Other things going for them:
    - They killed their low-margin PC business. Love it or hate it, it definitely boosted their profit margin.
    - IBM is one of the only companies still doing pure scientific/technology research. Microsoft is one of these companies too, but it's definitely time for the "next big thing." The PC revolution started in 1980, and it's 2005 now. If I were a technology company, especially one who wanted to keep their competitive edge, I'd be betting BIG on research. The only other big reseatch operations outside of universities that I know of are IBM, AT&T Labs and Microsoft. I'm sure there are other smaller operations, but not on the same grand scale.
    - They still have one of the best server lines out there.
    - They're big proponents of open source stuff. No matter how the whole OSS movement shakes out over the next few years, they're ideally positioned. Almost all their proprietary products can run on both closed- and open-source systems.