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Microsoft Trumps Google, Yahoo! R&D Budgets

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the just-because-they-can dept.

Rob writes to mention a Computer Business Review Online article on Microsoft's commitment to out-spend Google and Yahoo! on innovation in the coming year. From the article: "Microsoft Corp will spend over $1bn on R&D just in its MSN unit, for the fiscal year starting in July, chief executive Steve Ballmer told an audience of would-be advertising customers. The money, part of the surprise spending package that recently gave Microsoft's share price its biggest single-day drop in five years, comes as the company struggles to catch up to Yahoo! Inc and Google Inc in the search and online advertising market."

13 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. What about that other big $$$ project? by RevDobbs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say
    But nothin comes out when they move they lips
    Just a buncha gibberish
    And muthafuckas act like they forgot about Vista

  2. Outspend... on innovation... by Colin+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

    So who're they going to buy to get their innovation from then?

    Rushes to set up a company "CS Innovation Ltd". A mere snip at $20 million.

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:Outspend... on innovation... by farker+haiku · · Score: 1, Funny

      Don't worry gramps, they'll buy from you. Anyone with a slashdot user number as low as yours has to have seen everything under the sun ever invented as far as computers are involved.

      --
      Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
    2. Re:Outspend... on innovation... by ksheff · · Score: 2, Funny

      yeah, we originally had to post on /. by sending in decks of punch cards.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
  3. I wish I was at MS... by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can already see it now... multiple widescreen LCDs, macbooks and most ergonomical pens ever designed for everyone...

    --
    If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
  4. Dear Microsoft stockholders, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dear Microsoft Executives and Stockholders,

    You cannot buy "innovation".

    Love,

    Reality

  5. Yes, the cat got my tongue... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft Corp will spend over $1bn on R&D just in its MSN unit, for the fiscal year starting in July...

    That is an impressive figure to be sure but I still think it isn't enough to acheve world domination, why MS can't even develop a sealth fighter for that price let alone a whole fleet of Borg cubes fully armed, warp capable and sporting a giant Windows logo on each side.

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
  6. size! by lovebyte · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's not the size that counts, it's what you do with it.

    --

    I'll do it for cheesy poofs.

  7. Re:ROI? by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Funny

    Poster wrote:

    This is just another organization that believes that if they throw enough money at a problem it will fix anything.

    Balmer believes if he throws enough chairs at a problem it will fix anything.

    Microsoft Corp will spend over $1bn on R&D just in its MSN unit

    That's a lot of chairs ... anyone buying stock in office furniture supply companies?

  8. Re:from the by TheJediGeek · · Score: 5, Funny
    Is that the problem or the money that goes away?

    Yes.

  9. Google's press release in response... by number6x · · Score: 2, Funny

    Googles press release in response...

    "We are glad that Microsoft has made this commitment."
    We at Google plan on spending less than 10% of what Microsoft does in the next year.
    We also plan on more than doubling our revenue in the next year."

    "Does Microsoft plan on doubling their revenue?"

  10. Ob. Colbert adaptation by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Funny

    that's one hell of a press release ... could we say this?

    Microsoft isn't throwing chairs on the Titanic. Microsoft isn't sinking - they're soaring. They're throwing chairs on the Hindenberg!

    (for those who didn't see the video - links here http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/)

  11. Re:Lousy Return? Yes. by Eponymous+Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can't argue that Microsoft is very wealthy. I just don't see the innovation (MS has made me hate that word...) that I would hope for after making the kinds of investments they have made in R&D. Their main source of innovation seems to come from their M&A unit (although it's really just acquisitions- not a lot of merging going on).

    My personal theory about the poor return on their investment is that they hire a lot of people who are or would normally be university professors. But Microsoft hires them and they now have a job without the requirement to publish or teach. Should be nirvana, but what happens when you take away publishing and teaching requirements from a professor? You get a grad student. And a grad student is just somebody who doesn't want to work. :)