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Microsoft Accused of Squandering Billions On R&D
Julie188 writes "Even as Microsoft celebrates its 10,000th patent, angry shareholders are starting to speak out against what they say is the squandering of billions of dollars on pointless R&D projects. The 10,000th patent covers a technology that allows a device to associate data with objects placed on its surface, and is likely eventually to become part of the Surface table PC. But shareholders are fed up with the $8 billion annually spent. Said one, 'I believe Bill Gates is a charlatan because what he has said, implied, promised to shareholders and stakeholders and all of these visionary things that he mumbles and jumbles about and doesn't make reality of. MS is spending billions of dollars on R&D. Where is the return on investment?' In contrast, Apple had almost the same revenue gains as Microsoft while spending one-tenth as much."
Keep going, you almost had a fresh prince going there.
How we know is more important than what we know.
No need to be informed when you can be angry.
$ cat ~/complaints >> /ballmer /ballmer /ballmer -> /dev/null
(...)
$ ls -l
brwxr-xr-- ballmer execs 4 1954-11-03 20:31
$ echo "So thats what the problem is"
Kernel Panic - not syncing
WTF
Why is this modded funny - he is still chairman of the board!
From TFA:
Dude! You loaded up on the stock of a company whose products you don't even like, and watched it lose half its value without liquidating your position, and you're blaming Bill Gates for your problems???
Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
Well, there's always dividends... If Apple can do it on half the budget, and Linux can do it on what, 1/100th the budget (veeeery rough estimation, folks)?
Maybe what they need to do is to point their R&D in better directions, shake up its staff hard (starting at the top), and roll the rest into dividends.
This way the shareholders will be less sue-happy, they don't fall afoul of monopoly concerns, and they might even get a bit of profit out of all that innovation they keep talking about. We also get better and/or decent new products as a side-benefit.
I know, too much to ask and all, but they're going to have to do something, what with their marketshare shrinking and all...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Wow. I thought that MS's problems were because of bad management. When I read this, I realize that it goes all the way back to their shareholders.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Perhaps it is funny because most people assume Ballmer is the CHAIRman. *shrug*
Or maybe someone just decided to mod everything in this thread Funny?
Paraphrasing a wise Slashdot reader(sorry, forget who): the Slashdot mod system is like giving a fat kid 10 or 15 bucks and turning him loose in a candy store.
When was the last time you saw someone moderate something on slashdot without thinking it through? Considering I wasted 4 mod points on this thread already, I decided to throw it all away for an attempt at one lame joke.