Discussing a Private Buyout of Microsoft

PatriceVignon writes "Are private buyout companies setting their eyes on Microsoft? The Financial Times claims exactly that in an article called 'Private equity folk could do wonders with Microsoft', as ZDnet reports: 'Consider Microsoft, which has a balance sheet so inefficient that it would make a private equity investor weep ... The new management could take the axe to Microsoft's $6.6bn of wasteful research and development expenditure. The bloated workforce of more than 60,000 could be slashed, to the point where the huge resulting increase in cash flow would at last permit the company to borrow mega-billions.' Business Week, though, begs to differ: 'practically speaking, it's not going to happen,' and quotes Daniel Primack: 'Snakes on a Plane will win a best picture Oscar before Microsoft gets acquired by LBO firms.' What do you think?"

Comments

All your snakes are belong to us

[dwayner79]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ihAoSwQqo44

Microsoft, no... US Govenment yes

[smbarbour]

I would much rather see the LBO firms tackle the wasteful spending of the US Government. Microsoft's software might be crap, but the research division of Microsoft is well worth the money spent.

Just because the US is the ONLY military superpower currently in existence, doesn't mean that it should be the "world police" force. We should be spending the defense budget on the defense of our country, not on forcefully installing puppet governments in previously sovereign nations. Every country deserves the right to rule itself. It would be a different story if the US was asked to defend a sovereign nation (as was done with Kuwait in "Desert Shield/Storm")

But I'm going off into a rant...