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Microsoft CFO Quits
McGruber writes "NBC News is reporting that Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein is leaving the company to spend time with his extended family, as Microsoft 'struggles with sharply declining personal computer sales and a lukewarm reception for its new Windows 8 operating system.' Klein is the latest in a line of top-level executives to leave the company, following Windows head Steven Sinofsky last November."
do the right thing.
It'd be bigger news if he quit for another company, while Microsoft is on the decline it's going to be a very slow death spread across
a decade or two. They've still got considerable assets which will take a long time to bleed out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=msft+balance+sheet&annual
Have a squat over at the hobo house.
Ah, yes, Microsoft is in deep shit now, what with the record revenue and what not. No wonder the CFO ran away. 2013 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop, all hail RMS!
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
Next up Ballmer?
So the CFO jumps ship, and the shares went up? Do the people buying those shares under some misguided impression that Windows 8 is Klein's fault, and everything will be OK now? Perhaps they should be asking what the real reason is that he's decided to go...
Well, I guess we all wish the guy the best, and hope he enjoys time with his family.
I assume he has enough cash to do so; lucky for him.
Whilst a couple of high-level departures are hardly the "beginning of the end", (and financial people are easier to replace than tech gurus), I was thinking on a broader level here. If you were a senior exec, or a young graduate, where would you rather work. Google or Microsoft?
It was news last week. How old does that make it in internet time?
Isn't "leaving the company to spend time with his extended family" a common euphemism for being fired?
It's a mystery to me why extremely rich men like Balmer continue with the daily drudgery of running a business like Microsoft. Personally I'd buy a huge yacht (inc. surface to air missiles) and sail around the world with a harem of supermodel concubines. For the rest of my natural life...
And you expected something different here? Microsoft's latest numbers are actually astoundingly good, better than even most of the optimists predicted. They speak of a very healthy company, not one in decline at all.
Microsoft s numbers were *always* very good,, they deserve a $ on their name. 75% Gross profit margin is amazing, but that's not really the news here, because that is consistent. The news is that even with its primary product (Windows) taking a deserved beating they have made the difference up elsewhere (Servers; Gaming...well Live and Cloud...well Office).
The original poster I suspect was being a little sarcastic, but the Irony is not lost on me. From a financial point of view. Microsoft more diversified product line has saved it in the short term financially, but from where RMS and the rest of us look...Windows has proved to be a trainwreck, and Microsoft is weaker as a monopoly. Its high fives all around.
It's called GNU/Linux.
So profit outside usa remains static.
USD drops n percent.
MS profits rise n percent.
Duhhhhh
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
it is actually increasing in other markets faster than it's consumer desktop market is eroding.
I think we need to have a little look at those markets...because its a big fat failure on mobile.
Its started to make money on a subscription service for a....end of life console. Ignoring the fact that Microsoft is about to put a *TON* of money down on keeping in the console market, or that suddenly its getting competition from, mobile...the market its a big fat failure in, or steam...or the rise of disposable Android console gaming...Hell Sony might try to compete with a console costing costing less than its weight in gold (not that that is worth as much as it was).
Ok they are starting to make money from online office....hold the page, does that mean Office without Windows, running in a Web browser...in direct competition with Google, a company it repeatedly lose against...that it can't bribe or bully. Is this new market...or *the same* market that Office is only without the Windows Monopoly to prop it up, and won't this simply cannibalise current sales of Office.
Ok they are making more money in video/telephony software one of the reasons they are currently a big fat failure in mobile...because that is in direct competition with the carriers they are trying to sell to!? I am not sure if that is not a home goal.
Lastly Server Software http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240173199/Forrester-Microsoft-licence-hike-makes-no-sense price increases are a double edged sword, profitable in the short term, long term customers may look for low or free cost alternatives.
There is no way anyone can argue, that Microsoft has a bad quarter, but arguing these are new markets...or that they are more stable than its old monopoly, is simply not the case.
Microsoft is a failure in the mobile sector, and you cannot help but notice that Microsoft is *Still* making a 75% gross profit margin, you have to think that perhaps Microsoft might be better competing on price. "Microsoft Windows 8 Professional" from Amazon would cost me $175 the same as the new HP slate. I only list Amazon because its pretty hard to find full(not upgrade) editions of Windows OS.
Should we start calling it Metro 2013 ?
JAM
IF Microsoft was just Windows and Word/Office then the call of their demise would be appropriate. IF they were only tied to desktop/laptop machines, then they would be in a world of hurt.
I'm not sure what relevance is to my post, but I don't predict the demise of Microsoft any time soon..In fact I don't even mention anything like it. Microsoft still takes the vast majority of revenue from Office/Windows, and that is not going to change because they make a few dollars on the side from a dying console, or chat....or Windows compatible server products.. Now your point about Microsoft being the king of Desktops is not true since Windows is now a Tablet OS. It simply has the greatest compatibility to legacy Windows Desktop Applications.
My company supplies office furniture to Microsoft - like chairs - and ...and ...and... Balmer is NOT the problem. No Sir!
Chief psychotic warlord among lesser warlords who, once they're done stealing whatever they can steal, leave under threat of death. Eventually MS will implode.
There's nothing really to see here. He's been CFO for over three years, been at the company for much longer. Why not cash in on his various options and enjoy his life?
The doom and gloom about Microsoft on here is all wishful thinking. PC Windows is on a decline in the marketplace and has been since the the iPhone/iPad changed the game. Android has accelerated this by making smart touch devices available at a lower price point. Microsoft are aware of this, the speed of change has caught them out and they are going to stumble a little before they make the right move.
In the long run Office will survive because its a standard, nothing else can claim this. Office 365 gives them the ability to make money from Office without owning the OS. This is the future of Microsoft. Google may have been doing this longer but Office is Office.
Cloud computing/storage is going to be a big money earner going forward. Microsoft have positioned themselves for this. Going forward they would rather provide Windows servers using Azure than sell the OS. As unit sales of Windows server decline, look to Microsoft aggressively market and price Azure as an alternative. Especially in the SME space. Why run your own servers when you can get a reliable DR capable cloud solution from Microsoft. This is where the market is heading.
Xbox Live. The next Xbox is going to be a money earner. They are currently making money with the current service. The new one should come in at a reasonable price and allow them to continue this. It will also leverage cloud based services.
Consumer Windows is the bad news. This will move to become a phone/tablet OS which is where the consumer market is going. The chances are that they will come good, they have a lot of smart people working there.
Oh, and before the accusations start I'm not a Microsoft shill. I've never bought a computer that runs Windows. I just like to look at things a little more realistically. I still expect to get modded down because that's what happens on Slashdot.
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
Can the people who killed the start menu / Metro apps in an window.
The UI was to big of a jump and to not have some kind of choice is real bad.
Also get rid of the app store only for metro apps.
Smart guy! Good with money. Knows to cash out on those share options while they are still high. Before that impending PLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNGE...
Yeah the execs are parachuting out, but does anyone know who in MS is behind the Windows 8 clusterfuck? Like who was the dick who said to get rid of the Start button because *FUCK* those PC users. If there is a series of unsolved murders in Seattle at the moment it is that guy getting rid of everyone else at that meeting.
That would be Julie Larson-Green. She also create the much hated "ribbon UI". Fire her? Nope, the just promoted her to head the entire Windows division.
"struggles with Windows 8, yadda yadda yadda"
Funny...MS just beat analysts' expectations for the quarter (by quite a margin too!)
I wish upon this company all the evils that history can heap on them. They killed innovation in the computer business and it's taken 15 years for them to get to a point where they were mostly as good as what they stifled. Now Windows 8 and Windows XP are their enemies, hung by their own garrotte is suiting.
...Steve
More like he's going to spend more time with Windows 7. I'd be ready to shoot Windows 8 on site after almost a year of it. Why oh why won't that stupid lady who design the UI and Steve Balmer who supported it leave the company? This is classic toxic employee-induced mass quitting where in reality the 2 complete assholes should have left instead of all the good employees.
Every month or so on Slashdot, 1997-2003: Apple is dead!
Every month or so on Slashdot, 2005-2013: PC Gaming is dead!
Every month or so on Slashdot, 2008-2013: Console Gaming is dead!
Every month or so on Slashdot, 2013-?: Microsoft is dead!
It's been a while since we had a new one.
Seems they did this.
But then they are now directing her to put back in the start button and to reverse course somewhat (speculative).
Assuming the board over-rules the current windows team - and force a change from the disaster that is Win 8 - will she quit? :)
We`re all equal
... because they allowed the market to shift away from Windows. If this had not been allowed to happen, Microsoft could see sales of over 25,000,000,006 copies of Windows by 2018 (and that's not counting the 14,751,292,051 copies pirated in China).
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Not a lot of sympathy here. If you don't like it, stop doing business with Chinese companies.
American companies complain about the patents, yet turn around and contract out all their manufacturing needs there due to cheap labour, and want to sell products that because of the huge growth market.
He wears a suit, collects big pay check every month and takes home a big bonus, and is seen in his office once in a while. As a CEO he has done all that is expected of him. It is upto rest of the company to make progress and earn enough money to continue to pay him his exalted benefits. What more can he do? The raison d`etre for private companies is to earn money to pay their top executives. What part of that private enterprise you guys dont get?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Can the people who killed the start menu / Metro apps in an window
Can they what?
Put the start menu back? Put Metro apps in a window, or outside of one?
So the CFO jumps ship, and the shares went up? Do the people buying those shares under some misguided impression that Windows 8 is Klein's fault, and everything will be OK now? Perhaps they should be asking what the real reason is that he's decided to go...
Real reason? Didn't you read the summary above? It's to spend time w/ his extended family. In other words, wife & kids are fine, but he need to spend more quality time w/ his parents/siblings/nephews/neices/cousins and other distant relatives.
It's a perfectly good reason to quit the top finance job @ MS. Boy, are you people cynical!!!
Google, of course.
At least with Google you get to work on things that could make a difference in the world.
With MS you only get ground down into the lowest common denominator, unless you are willing to stab your boss in the back, stab/sabotage any other project... and not have time to work on your own due to having to defend your own project against all the others...
Sounds a lot like the common description of Piracy... defend your own ship against all others...
I loved your list because its all true. Apple did die...it literally had to reinvent itself at the time, OS 9 was perhaps the worst OS imaginable, but it was an incredibly exiting time watching Apple reinvent itself. It actually died in 2007 when it changed its name to Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, Inc. showing its transformation into electronics company.
PC always had interesting time with many dips due to advances in consoles, as someone who saw its rise. In reality it died for me when Microsoft focused its attention on the Xbox; it is a shadow of its former self, now its all console ports and DRM, DLC...Freemium. News of Microsoft banning grown up games in the European marketplace (quickly revoked) shows how bad they don't understand games...as much as they like to point gaming out on when it comes to selling their OS. In reality Microsoft is abandoning the whole idea of a consumer PC.
Is console gaming dying!? Its certainly evolving. I regularly argue for Android gaming, but tablets and phones are in many ways new consoles in themselves, and offer many advantages over traditional console gaming. The Wii U has not really proved itself in the market, and Sony/Microsoft have yet to unveil their new consoles, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last generation of dedicated under the TV consoles...with Xbox and Playstation becoming brands only. While everything is rolled into smartTV whatever that is.
On the plane last night I could see around me 6-8 iPads, 5-6 MacBooks and 1 windows laptop.
Except its worth noting that Apple Mac Sales have dropped 22% in this quarter alone, While its iPads are rapidly becoming just another tablet. Apple needs to pay attention.
Seriously, what innovation comes out of Open Source?
The biggest innovation out of Open Source, for me, was the bootable "live" CD. The ability to run a modern OS entirely off a CD/DVD and RAM, without installing anything to the harddrive - had all kinds of uses, from emergency recovery disks, to hardware diagnostics, to privacy, etc. And even today, 10 years or more later, Microsoft has some partial solution (Windows to Go, just recently released).
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head at the moment - which doesn't mean there was anything else, just my memory is bad ;) - but I'd put the live CD open source innovation way up there. It's easily far, far superior than anything innovated in Vista, 7, 8, etc.
It's called the Peter Principle. I for one, am glad they promoted her. Maybe the next version of Windows will be worse than Win8.
Quit playing Monopoly with Bill.
Linux - of the people, by the people, and for the people.
My Windows 8 store shows both Metro and Desktop apps, the latter have a different hue on their little tiles. Possibly a way to show a bigger number when someone compares "how many apps in your store?".
Why does it matter who the CEO or CFO is if they sell a product designed to fail as a way of increasing repeat sales ?
Most PC buyers have probably owned 2-3-4 Win 98/Me/XP/etc. PeeCees that have died with unfixable or expensive security issues, taking all their email, work, pictures, and so on to the landfill. Fix MS's security architecture and their market share will fix itself.
and sleep with the sword?
[Hint: it's supposed to be a "Magic Goes Away" joke]
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The cloud is the new floppy disk.