Slashdot Mirror
Will Microsoft Sell Off Its Entertainment Division?
An anonymous reader writes "Forbes analyst Adam Hartung has predicted that Microsoft will sell off its entertainment division, which includes Xbox, in the coming years. He even goes so far as to list Sony or Barnes & Noble as potential buyers. Lets forget how crazy this sounds for a moment and focus on the reasons why Hartung believes such a sale will happen. It basically comes down to Windows 8, and how poorly it is selling. Combine that with falling sales of PCs, the Surface RT tablet not doing so great, the era of more than one PC in the home disappearing, and Microsoft has a big problem. The problem not only stems from the PC market not growing, but because Microsoft relies so heavily on Windows and Office for revenue. With that in mind, Hartung believes Steve Ballmer will do anything and everything to save Windows, including ditching entertainment and therefore Xbox."
I see nothing embedded in the article or Ballmer's statement that smacks at all of what King, who was devolving deeply into socialism toward the end of his life (hence the very unsurprising quote you provided), said. To imply that there is at best short-sighted and foolish, compelled by the same coffee house liberalism King would have been quite fond of today.
Generally I am repulsed by those repulsed by the profit motive, by those who imagine there is some artificial Utopian third way other than capitalism that would advance society in any meaningful way. The pursuit of money to its own end may be evil but with the right motives it is certainly not a bad thing to make money, build companies, provide jobs, etc. etc. Communism and socialism and their numerous derivatives have all proven historically to be unmitigated social, economic, and cultural disasters, yet liberals still cling to this bizarre, unwavering belief that there is a warm fuzzy alternative to capitalism that is a heavy dose of socialism with "just enough" capitalism so that some people can have jobs and the rest of us can live off the work product of those people - or just have the country continually spiral into deeper and deeper loads of debt (i.e., the U.S., France, Italy, Greece, the U.K., among many others) that ultimately kills the country financially and socially, anyway and leads to war, rioting, revolution, etc. Or, perhaps, have everyone just work for the government and/or live off government benefits - or both.
Whom do you believe Ballmer - or indeed any company President or CEO - is protecting when they strive to have their company succeed? Ultimately they are protecting livelihoods and, if they are publicly-traded companies like Microsoft, their shareholders, which ultimately trickles down to individuals and families. And I've been laid off and been out of work enough times to know that there is no grand altruism to almost any corporation. They do what they have to do in tough times and grow in good times. They didn't owe me a job in the first place so if I'm let go, so be it. Move on to the next job the next company and see how it goes.