Microsoft CFO Quits

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Posted by timothy on Sunday April 21, 2013 @09:02PM from the extended-family-is-a-new-twist-on-the-old-lie dept.

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."

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Come on CEO... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 21:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

do the right thing.
1. Re:Come on CEO... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 21:12 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yep, Balmer is definitely the problem.
2. Re:Come on CEO... by Taco+Cowboy · 2013-04-21 21:51 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Ballmer is not the problem --- that guy is only PART of a very BIG problem
  
  --
  Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
3. Re:Come on CEO... by peragrin · 2013-04-21 22:15 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  why? I think Ballmer is doing a fantastic job and he should keep up the hard chair throwing work.
  Because for every chair thrown another bad quarter for MSFT happens.
  
  --
  i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
4. Re:Come on CEO... by poetmatt · 2013-04-21 23:04 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  he represents the problem, and he's also responsible for the company *as* CEO. So either he fixes the problem or he is the problem.
5. Re:Come on CEO... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 23:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Have you ever SEEN Ballmer? I have talked to him in person once and have seen a talk (incoherent rant) by him once. He is the bigges problem they have at MS. They have others but he is by far the biggest. He has the same reality distortion field Jobs had, but it affects only him.
6. Re:Come on CEO... by Ironhandx · 2013-04-21 23:11 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Fixing a problem as large as the one at microsoft is a top-down job. You absolutely require a new CEO to fix it. Therefore stating that Ballmer is by far their largest problem is entirely accurate.
7. Re:Come on CEO... by VortexCortex · 2013-04-21 23:53 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Have you ever SEEN Ballmer? I have talked to him in person once and have seen a talk (incoherent rant) by him once. He is the bigges problem they have at MS. They have others but he is by far the biggest. He has the same reality distortion field Jobs had, but it affects only him.
  Hmm, sounds like he's such an ass that instead of a distortion field he's become large and dense enough to collapse into a singularity.
  Interestingly, it seems something like Hawking radiation is occurring at the edge of the singularity's influence: The Chief Officers begin radiating away from the company's event horizon giving one reason to those on the outside, while the actual reasons for departure fall back inward toward the singularity.
  If only there were a name for such phenomena where you become so dense and toxic that no intelligible thoughts escape you and everything within your reach turns to crap -- Sort of like a social version of a blackhole... hmm. Any ideas?
8. Re:Come on CEO... by rudy_wayne · 2013-04-21 23:57 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Yep, Balmer is definitely the problem.
  Ever wonder how Steve Ballmer keeps his job. Well, here it is:
  Bill Gates is Chairman of Microsoft's Board of Directors and Microsoft's largest stockholder
  Steve Ballmer was best man at Bill Gates' wedding.
9. Re:Come on CEO... by Talderas · 2013-04-22 00:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  If only there were a name for such phenomena where you become so dense and toxic that no intelligible thoughts escape you and everything within your reach turns to crap -- Sort of like a social version of a blackhole... hmm. Any ideas?
  Politician.
  
  --
  "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
10. Re:Come on CEO... by gtall · 2013-04-22 00:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Nah, Ballmer's doing to MS exactly like some of us would like to do to MS. MS deserves Ballmer.
11. Re:Come on CEO... by nojayuk · 2013-04-22 00:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Steve Ballmer has been in a senior position at MicroSoft for about thirty years now, unlike the typical bungee boss CEOs and board members of various other high-tech corporations such as HP (remember Carly?). During the time he's been working there MS total turnover has been about half a trillion bucks. I'd say US high-tech businesses could use some more chair-throwers like Ballmer and fewer wily super-geniuses like Fiorina.
12. Re:Come on CEO... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-22 01:11 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Blackballmer.
13. Re:Come on CEO... by mabhatter654 · 2013-04-22 01:43 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The root of the problem is that Gates set the company to run business units like mini-startups... With super-tough managers over each one. Then Gates stepped back and provided the money and cheerleading. The problem is that the culture developed of the business unit managers all stabbing EACH OTHER in the back to get ahead. So Office, servers, IE, and Windows units are all to some extent fighting for turf because Gates gave it to two different groups, or technology changed. Ballmer is just continuing what he was taught.
  Steve Jobs took the opposite approach (but only after he was kicked out and came back). If a product or service wasn't worth SETVE'S time then it was "coasting" or cut. Steve built Apple around its CEO paying attention to every detail of new products... And ATTENTION is limited and expensive.
  The idea to chop Microsoft into thirds is Past time. Microsoft should have done it five to ten years ago when they were fighting breaking up. Now, they are fighting to be interesting at all. They need to cut or spinoff technologies.. But they need a CEO that LOVES THEIR PRODUCTS. If anything THAT is what made Steve-notes so special... The CEO of the company knew the product inside out and was excited and loved it! Microsoft needs to shed and pair down until that is true of their products and CEO.
14. Re:Come on CEO... by nojayuk · 2013-04-22 01:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "Saying that the Ballmer is no worse than Fiorini is no reason to keep Ballmer - there are far better alternatives around."
  Such as? Who's available, with the sort of deep knowledge of where MS came from, where it is today and where it is going tomorrow and who can step in and make MS even better than it is today with minimal disruption to the financial bottom line? Hmmm, tricky...
  Some day MS is going to have to cope without Steve B., hopefully not in the same way that Apple is handling the loss of Steve Jobs but that day isn't here yet. I find the idea that Ballmer is some kind of liability to MS quite amusing considering what would/will happen to the business if/when he does leave.
15. Re:Come on CEO... by Archangel+Michael · 2013-04-22 02:44 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Interestingly Microsoft is starting to realize, too late, that it has been a "Windows(TM)" company, and not a technology company. The fact that they tried to tie everything to Windows(TM), is the problem. Replace Windows(TM) (with say .. Android or iOS) and all of a sudden, your whole core is gone and all the supporting products are worth less. And that is what is happening. People are realizing that you don't need Windows(TM) to get stuff done. And in fact, you don't need Windows(TM) most of the time.
  And since people are realizing this, they are exploring other options.The days of being able to sell Windows 95 for $150 and have people line up around the block have long since been over. The Windows ship has sailed.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
16. Re:Come on CEO... by Nemyst · 2013-04-22 02:56 · Score: 2
  
  They could always take back Elop from Nokia. He's basically still working for them anyway.
17. Re:Come on CEO... by jones_supa · 2013-04-22 03:00 · Score: 2
  
  Well, that is true, the CEO is the ultimate representative in the company. But I think the funky monkey Steve Ballmer is often perceived as the cause of this and that because people simply cannot name many other people inside Microsoft. For example, how many reading this story knew that there was a guy called "Peter Klein" playing the part of CFO?
18. Re:Come on CEO... by CanEHdian · 2013-04-22 03:04 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Bill Gates is Chairman of Microsoft's Board of Directors and Microsoft's largest stockholder
  The solution is obvious. Gates needs to retire. I, for one, would say that Steve Ballmer has "Chair-man" written all over him.
  Mark Zuckerberg should be hired as the new CEO. One new project will be Microsoft ofFACE - the ultimate social office experience.
  Peter changed his status to: "Going home sick (wink wink)"
  Janice added "Sales Forecast 2016" to PowerPoint Gallery
  John is writing: "Peter termination letter.docx".
  
  --
  When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
19. Re:Come on CEO... by hairyfeet · 2013-04-22 03:30 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Sorry Taco but he really IS the problem. I mean look at their track record under his watch, how many hits have they had? One and a half, Win 7 and X360 (which should only count as a half thanks to the 2.4 billion the RRoD cost) and now lets look at just a PARTIAL list of the failures...Zune, Kin, killing a growing playsforsure market for the DOA Zune market, Sidekick, Vista, 6 billion pissed away for that ad company that went nowhere, more money pissed away for Yahoo Search, 4 billion blown on the Windows 8 launch to get less than 4 million takers (which figures up to $500 for every $40 copy sold,hell he could have just gave everyone $50 for taking it and came out ahead) and WinRT.
  You wanna know the part that REALLY pisses me off? If the rumors are true thanks to Ballmer getting on his knees and begging Intel to save his behind there is a damned good chance Intel can save the Win 8 Vistabomb which will keep his fat ass in the big chair for at least one more release, thanks a fricking lot Intel. For those that haven't heard the rumor is a dual core Atom tablet with Windows 8 for just $225. If they manage to hit that price point you are gonna see a hell of an uptake simply because you won't be able to get anything that will run your Windows software for cheaper and if the new Atom's sub 2w power usage is correct we may actually finally get an all day laptop since they'll most likely sell a keyboard with extra battery ala the transformer.
  But even if Intel manages to save his fat hide it won't change the fact that windows 8 is DOA on desktops and laptops, hell its bad enough all the major hardware sites have "Not ready to switch? We have Windows 7!" ads...the guy is a trainwreck of a CEO, no doubt about it. You could have hired a monkey to throw poo at the stock page and had a better ROI than Ballmer had, he must have blown 20 billion plus these past 6 years and didn't have squat for a ROI.
  Frankly the only positive is if Intel manages to save his fat ass and give him a tablet that sells maybe he will STFU and let Windows 9 be Windows 7.1 but if he sticks to the road he has the company on he can kiss those piles of money they get from X86 desktops and laptops bye bye as all the OEMs are looking at exit strategies. You know that your CEO is made of suck when he actually loses share in a monopoly situation, hell my mom could run the company better than he has.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
20. Re:Come on CEO... by hairyfeet · 2013-04-22 04:08 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Its not that, its the fact that time and time again he has ignored all the data including their testers, the press, and most importantly their customers, and its cost the company billions.
  I mean why in the fuck even HAVE a beta tester program if you are gonna go "LA LA LA" to every single problem the testers point out? And while you certainly can't always go by the press, as for one thing they all seem enamored so much with smartphones they actually believe people are gonna give up their desktops and laptops for them, but when you have virtually the entire press and blogosphere saying "THIS REALLY SUCKS!" ya know what? it probably DOES really suck and needs to be fixed.
  Yet time and time again he has given the finger to all that aren't drinking the koolaid and its cost them billions.They blew billions of the Vista launch only for it to become the punchline of jokes when all they needed was to fix the more serious issues before launch, blew 8 billion on Skype only to realize they had no damned idea how to monetize it and to make matter worse forced a good chunk of their most loyal users to switch (see the recent uptick in yahoo, I can tell you its the former Hotmail and Windows messenger users jumping ship) because they tried to hamhandedly jam Skype in where it just didn't fit, and of course the billions spent on windows 8 ads when practically every single beta tester and tech blogger was saying its gonna fricking bomb, which what do you know, it did.
  Honestly i don't even know who to compare Ballmer to as i can't think of a CEO that completely ignored everything they were being told, never before have I seen a company so large just whip out a gun and shoot themselves in the head like that. Everyone said Elop was a plant but look at who he learned from folks, Ballmer could be the subject of textbooks dedicated to showing how NOT to run a successful company. When he took over from Gates they were on top of the world, had a monopoly and money to burn, but under Ballmer it became a "lost decade" because he simply didn't know what to do with the company.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
21. Re:Come on CEO... by hairyfeet · 2013-04-22 04:18 · Score: 2
  
  Allchin or Ozzie or Russinovich. frankly any of those could run the company better, they know the products inside and out (hell Russinovich frankly knows the guts of Windows better than a good chunk of their engineers which is why MSFT bought Sysinternals) and I have NO doubt any of those could do a better job than the Ballminator.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
22. Re:Come on CEO... by TemporalBeing · 2013-04-22 06:09 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Honestly i don't even know who to compare Ballmer to as i can't think of a CEO that completely ignored everything they were being told, never before have I seen a company so large just whip out a gun and shoot themselves in the head like that. Everyone said Elop was a plant but look at who he learned from folks, Ballmer could be the subject of textbooks dedicated to showing how NOT to run a successful company. When he took over from Gates they were on top of the world, had a monopoly and money to burn, but under Ballmer it became a "lost decade" because he simply didn't know what to do with the company.
  Ballmer and Elop are probably the only two worth comparing, and you're right - Elop probably learned a lot from Ballmer. Yet it's Elop that got the term "Elop Effect" named after him for what he did to Nokia, and who will certainly go down in the text books for it. Ballmer, though, probably won't be far behind with "Lost Decade", but it's not as catchy, nor has what he done been as dramatic to the company as Elop was with Nokia - and there are a lot of other things that could be linked to the demise of Microsoft as well - Ballmer has only been on (albeit large) factor in the equation.
  
  Removing Ballmer won't be the whole solution for Microsoft. You need to remove numerous layers of management at the company - getting rid of everyone that has grown up there under Ballmer and Gates, everyone that has that same mentality of having "1 Microsoft Way" for the world of software. Then and only then does Microsoft stand a chance of reviving itself to any degree...
  
  In the mean time they'll continue to ride out their profits from Windows and Office as the two diminish into oblivion over the next decade.
  
  --
  Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
23. Re:Come on CEO... by nojayuk · 2013-04-22 06:47 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  In 2002 MicroSoft's gross profits were $24 billion. In 2012 they were $59 billion. Someone somewhere is doing something right.
24. Re:Come on CEO... by TemporalBeing · 2013-04-22 07:30 · Score: 2
  In 2002 MicroSoft's gross profits were $24 billion. In 2012 they were $59 billion. Someone somewhere is doing something right.
  Investors don't care about gross profits (difference between sale price and cost to make it). They care about net profits (difference between expenses and revenues). I could have gross profits of $100 Trillion, but if my net profits are only $1 then it the company is not doing well financially despite selling high margin products.
  
  For comparison:
  
  2002: Microsoft had net profit of $7.83 Billion USD. source
  2012: Microsoft had net profit of $16.978 Billion USD. source
  Now comparing the numbers - 24/7.83 = 3.065; 59/16.978 = 3.475. So Microsoft is doing only marginly better in now than it was a decade ago.
  --
  Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
hardly cause for concern by Sadsfae · 2013-04-21 21:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
1. Re:hardly cause for concern by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 21:17 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  not to mention the actual financial news this quarter was actually very good for them as it was an INCREASE not a decline.
2. Re:hardly cause for concern by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 21:25 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  not to mention the actual financial news prepared by the CFO who just quit this quarter was actually very good for them
  Creative accountants are always wise to move on before the product of their creativity is revealed in all its glory.
3. Re:hardly cause for concern by Joce640k · 2013-04-21 21:50 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  They've still got considerable assets which will take a long time to bleed out.
  They basically get money for every PC sold. How is that an unhealthy situation?
  People haven't rushed out in droves to replace their perfectly good PCs because of Windows 8. Tech mags love to make headlines out of that but it doesn't mean Microsoft is in trouble.
  
  --
  No sig today...
4. Re:hardly cause for concern by Raumkraut · 2013-04-21 22:16 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  IANAA, but there's "creative accounting", and then there's fraud. One is perfectly legal, the other not. It's like the difference between "tax avoidance" and "tax evasion".
  The thing with creative accounting is not that it hides or creates money from nothing (which would be fraud), but that it moves it around from other places/times. If you see a really good quarter now, it's possibly because some income has been moved from elsewhen. So it might be expected for the next few fiscal quarters to be more disappointing.
  The old guy gets to leave on a high, and the new guy gets to "improve" the company's financials after an initial few bad quarters. It's an accountancy win-win.
5. Re:hardly cause for concern by ozmanjusri · 2013-04-21 22:28 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  How is that an unhealthy situation?
  Because partners who've been closely tied to their success are now looking at alternatives.
  "Vendors in China have revealed the Intel has begun to promote Android based convertible tablet/notebooks. Intel is concerned that Windows 8 has been unable to stimulate global demand for notebooks, and since global sales of Android tablets have been increasing, they are looking at reducing their reliance on the Microsoft OS.
  China-based vendor Lenovo will be first to release Intel driven Android systems in May, while Hewlett-Packard (HP), Toshiba, Acer and Asustek Computer will launch theirs in the third quarter."
  http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130419PD208.html
  
  --
  "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
6. Re:hardly cause for concern by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 23:09 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  What could he possibly hope to gain except a very long jail sentence.
  That's funny. A finance guy receiving a long jail sentence. Have you been around the last 5 years?
7. Re:hardly cause for concern by whisper_jeff · 2013-04-21 23:10 · Score: 2
  
  I'm sure many people would have said similar things about RIM and Nokia. Look at them now.
8. Re:hardly cause for concern by poetmatt · 2013-04-21 23:33 · Score: 2
  
  you'd be surprised how fast a company can go out of business when the decline has been going on for 5 years already.
9. Re:hardly cause for concern by Nerdfest · 2013-04-21 23:41 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yes, because if there's one thing Chinese companies respect, it's patents.
10. Re:hardly cause for concern by erroneus · 2013-04-22 00:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Unhealthy... where to begin?!
  Sure, it's a nice arrangement when the success of the PC industry is the success of Microsoft. But how healthy is it when the failure of Microsoft is the death of the PC industry??? The influence that a software maker has over the hardware industries is VERY unhealthy.
11. Re:hardly cause for concern by tgd · 2013-04-22 00:21 · Score: 2
  
  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
  Its also a carefully changed edit to the original quote which was either done or ignored by Slashdot's editors deliberately to fan the anti-MS flames here, or their incompetence let through.
  The words of the quote are verbatim from the article, however the quote about Microsoft's market share was *not* quoted in the original article. The Slashdot "edit" of putting quotes around it makes it sound like a quote from Peter Klein or Microsoft, whereas its actually a quote from whoever wrote the article at Yahoo.
12. Re:hardly cause for concern by andydread · 2013-04-22 00:33 · Score: 2
  
  THey respect the laws of the land that they do business in. That means in China patents laws are not the same as in the US. That means that the feeble patents that MS and Apple are using against open source software may not work in China. Likewise. In the US they respect "we own all your code patents" And so with that, when they do business in the US they have to deal with the MS and the Apple and their "We own all your code" patents. That's just the rules to the road. The patents are invalid in China.
13. Re:hardly cause for concern by cyber-vandal · 2013-04-22 00:38 · Score: 2
  
  I'd imagine that Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, Acer and Asus all respect patents when trying to sell their products in any country where patents are respected i.e. pretty much everywhere they want to sell stuff.
14. Re:hardly cause for concern by postbigbang · 2013-04-22 01:00 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  And his CFO leaving is just another CFO leaving in a chain of them going back decades. But it's an opportunity for people to heap on Microsoft, rail at Ballmer, do the death-watch thing, and so forth.
  Ever exec that leaves Microsoft will twig the same response. Ignore lots of stuff, and hope for the big Redmond ideological crater. People are so predictable. Slashdot must have gotten several pageview spikes out of their past week posts about Microsoft. They learn from ZDNet.
  If you're a CFO and you DON'T push financials to make your stock look good to the Wall Street overlords, you're not doing your job. Decided to take your cash and enjoy life? Then you'd be like thousands of Microsoft employees that became millionaires or more.
  I'm not rationalizing the boorish and illegal things Microsoft has done. Rather, citing that this really isn't much news, but it's a boring period in the tech industry.
  
  --
  ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
15. Re:hardly cause for concern by oh_my_080980980 · 2013-04-22 01:22 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Really:
  
  "Q3 2013: the company is reporting $20.49 billion in revenue, lower than what it saw during the holidays, and an equally soft $6.06 billion in profit that dipped below both the previous quarter and the same period last year." http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/18/microsoft-posts-q3-2013-earnings/
  
  Keep smoking that microsoft crack...
Microsoft is in deep shit now! by mobby_6kl · 2013-04-21 21:16 · Score: 4, Informative

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!
1. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by bloodhawk · 2013-04-21 21:20 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  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!
  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.
2. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by Leejjon · 2013-04-21 22:25 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Yeah they received more money from licensing Android patents than ever before!
3. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by delt0r · 2013-04-21 23:33 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  They still have more than 80% of the desktop market. Doing poorly is means truckloads of money. I can't see MS going anywhere soon.
  
  Half the problem is stock market expectations. You can't just do well, you must do better than last year. And not just better but the improvement has to be more than the previous year. Its hard to do that when you have pretty much already sold your product to everyone that has a computer.
  
  As a good economist once said, "Humans don't understand exponential curves".
  
  --
  If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
4. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-22 00:00 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  that is usually when CFO's resign. IT is not like he is walking out the door now, he stays on till the end of the 4th quarter. now if he had left BEFORE the numbers then that is something that would be incredibly fishy as it would scream there was something in their he wasn't willing to put his name against.
5. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by rudy_wayne · 2013-04-22 00:06 · Score: 2
  
  THalf the problem is stock market expectations. You can't just do well, you must do better than last year. And not just better but the improvement has to be more than the previous year. Its hard to do that when you have pretty much already sold your product to everyone that has a computer. .
  The stock market is a BIG part of the problem. Look at Apple. Their products are selling really well. iPads and iPhones and iWhatevers by the millions. And Macs are more popular than ever. And yet, since Tim Cook took over as CEO, Apple's stock price has dropped 50%..
  Several years ago I worked for a company that reported record profits for 6 consecutive quarters. What happened? The stock price went down 25%..
6. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by dingen · 2013-04-22 00:18 · Score: 2
  
  Stock prices are a reflection of expectations, not of past results. The fact some company made profit in the past doesn't mean it will do so in the future.
  
  --
  Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
7. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by dingen · 2013-04-22 00:44 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Even though this is modded down, it's really the bottom line: with Windows XP the operating system was basically done. Complete. Finished. No more features are required. Everything that was added later was either cruft or could just as easily have been implemented in Windows XP. The only reason why Microsoft kept certain things from XP (like proper 64-bit support, IE9+ and DirectX 10+) was to artificially create a reason for people to switch to future versions of Windows, not because XP didn't offer a decent platform for these things.
  Same thing applies to Office by the way, the other big part in Microsoft's revenue stream: both Office and Windows are "done" and have been so for years. And since Microsoft hasn't been able to make any profits in markets outside of the Windows/Office ecosystem, the future of the company currently depends on how much longer they can convince people to keep buying new versions of the same old software. How long before the general public realizes they don't need to "upgrade" because they don't get anything they already have now? Looking at Windows 8 sales figures: not very long.
  
  --
  Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
8. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by div_2n · 2013-04-22 00:57 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Results posted today reflect realities from a bit back in history. The shift away from laptops and desktops is ramping up extremely quickly. I'm not sure I've ever witnessed such a rapid shift in the marketplace. The closest I can think of might be the migration away from IE and that took several years really.
  As an example, within the last week I've had conversations with two family members due new central computing devices. One is looking at a device like the Galaxy Note II as their primary computing device and the other is looking at a tablet. Both female. One 30ish and the other 60ish in age. Neither techies. All family members asking tech questions now are either phone or tablet related. None are asking about laptops or computers. It was exactly reverse a year ago.
  Do my family members make a trend? No. But the sales figures are showing a HUGE shift like I'm seeing.
  There's another trend emerging that is going to hit Microsoft really hard sooner or later that dovetails on the post-PC trend -- BYOD in companies. There are an increasing number of employees for whom tablets are just fine as their primary computing device. Basic productivity software such as Google Apps are just fine for their simple needs.
  It's important to note that Windows 8 was Microsoft's first effort to insulate themselves from this trend. So far, their effort has been mostly a flop. Unless they really right the ship with Windows 9, they will shift from market dominance to just another vendor. And while this will be painful for MS employees and shareholders, it will be great for consumers.
9. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by dingen · 2013-04-22 01:37 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  So, XP level security and no UAC and no sandboxing in IE and other windows level engineering changes were not needed.
  That's exactly what I'm saying. Sandboxing could have been implemented in XP, just as Chrome does in XP. UAC doesn't provide any real level of security, it's just a pop-up box which everybody answers with "OK". It's exactly these types of superficial changes, marketed as major improvements that show that Microsoft really doesn't know what features to add to Windows anymore.
  
  How about I just say you seem to have no idea about what you are talking about. And you _deserve_the modding down.
  It's a free country, say whatever you like. But the numbers don't lie: *a lot* of people are perfectly happy sticking to XP because later editions simply have no real added value for them. More people are using XP today than Vista ever had at its peak. Windows 7 only has a lot of users because 8 GB of RAM became the norm and XP can't handle that properly, but still I think most people that are using Windows 7 are using it because they either wanted to get rid off Vista or because it came with their PC when they bought it. There is a cycle going on of making a version with serious flaws so they can fix it in the next version and use that artificial mechanism to boost sales. But Microsoft will have a tougher time convincing people to upgrade with every new version of Windows, because their software is simply done as it is and nothing of real value is to be added anymore.
  
  --
  Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
10. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by Miamicanes · 2013-04-22 01:49 · Score: 2
  
  > Unless they really right the ship with Windows 9
  (...) So far, their effort has been mostly a flop. Unless they really right the ship with Windows 9 by giving us back Aero Glass, or raise the bar several notches and give us Aero Glass Dynamically-Translucent Rotating Cube, with support for LCD touchpad [which defaults to a normal desktop experience unless you feel like slumming with phone/tablet apps, and simultaneously has sufficiently-high 'wow!' factor that doesn't interfere with usability AND gives consumers a compelling reason to buy new laptops with 3GHz+ quadcore i7 CPUs and discrete GPUs that would have been jaw-dropping on a desktop 2-4 years ago], they will shift from market dominance to just another vendor (...)
  There, fixed that for you.
  The problem isn't that computers are "good enough" now, the problem is that Windows 8 is butt ugly, and offers consumers nothing compelling to take their breath away and say, "Wow, that totally kicks ass!". Nobody is going to go buy a new computer that looks like a dumbed-down beta version of their previous one. If manufacturers want to fight the race to the bottom, they have to give consumers a reason to care about higher-end specs and put them to visibly-compelling good use. MetroModern just isn't going to sell high-end discrete GPUs and i7 CPUs. And frankly, kick-ass eye candy that doesn't impede usability is just about the only high-end hardware frontier left to fight Apple-ization and laminated .7mm slabs with the approximate usability of Ubuntu Unity.
  Seriously. Microsoft needs to give laptop and desktop manufacturers a reason to sell thousand-dollar high-end laptops, and desktops with 3+ displays that will make people with lower-end hardware feel like poor second-class users who can't run the latest software (well) until they upgrade, not cut Windows down to something that can run on an anonymous shit one-gigahertz tablet from Shenzhen with a tiled window or two and soft keyboard.
11. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by Ksevio · 2013-04-22 02:17 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Several years ago I worked for a company that reported record profits for 6 consecutive quarters. What happened? The stock price went down 25%..
  Definitely not hiring you if my stock is going to go down 25%
12. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by MBasial · 2013-04-22 05:19 · Score: 2
  
  Graphing in Excel is by no means "done". Maybe the latest release finally actually gives us WYSIWYG (Office 2007 at work, 2010 at home), but it's been broken since at least 1995. I've long wished for MS to buy up the folks that make Grapher (www.goldensoftware.com) and give us graphs that can be used in technical situations. (I'm also a Grapher customer, and like their product, but if their graphing capabilities were integrated into Office, my life would be easier. My clients own Excel, they don't own Grapher.)
  
  Trivial examples indicating to me that Excel has not been "done" since 1995:
  1) Make a graph with X and Y axes at the same scale, NOT at "eyeball it to isotropic on-screen, print, check, revise to anisotropic on-screen, print, check, repeat" scales,
  2) add labels to points on a scatterplot from a 3rd data column (Why would I need to post X or Y values? Aren't those, y'know, graphically depicted by the graph? I need to post Z labels!)
  
  As long-lived and as enthusiastic a love affair I've had with Excel since the 1990s, the graphing has always been weaker than it ought to be.
13. Re:Microsoft is in deep shit now! by dingen · 2013-04-22 05:56 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, "the previous version was crap, but we've got everything sorted now". Do you know how often I've heard that in my past 25 years of using Windows? Every single time they released a "radical new version, built from the ground up", which they claim every other version or so. I'm not buying it anymore. It's just the same old stuff over and over again.
  
  --
  Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
Re:Shares up? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 21:34 · Score: 2, Informative

Shares went up due to better-than-expected quarterly reports. Especially in non-Windows areas, which still resulted in significant revenue and profit improvements.
Re:Shares up? by bloodhawk · 2013-04-21 21:39 · Score: 3, Interesting

The 2 are unrelated events. The shares went up because of the very good financial growth MS showed this quarter despite the drop in PC sales.
Re:Shares up? by Mike+Frett · 2013-04-21 21:45 · Score: 3, Insightful

You should know by now that the Stock Market isn't a very good medium for judging anything; It's no different than a visit to Las Vegas. But, there use to be a time when you could invest in a Company because you cared about the Company and wanted to be a part in it's growing and have a say in what happened. I seriously doubt, these days, that people even know what Company they put money in; they are in and out so fast. We should take it back to that time, and ban all this lightening trading.
The truth is, Microsoft is dying. It's going to take a long time, but they will eventually bleed to death. We all knew it was coming, nothing lasts forever. Even if they did manage to put on a good show in the next year or so, It is inevitable that such a thing can't last.
Why? by Pino+Grigio · 2013-04-21 21:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

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...
1. Re:Why? by robnelle · 2013-04-21 21:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  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...
  For some people it's not necessarily about just the money, it's about the power. Controlling one of the biggest and most ubiquitous companies in the world = a lot of power.
2. Re:Why? by c · 2013-04-21 22:55 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  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...
  Ah, the John McAfee package. Seems to be popular with the techie crowd. We're also having a special this week on the Kim Dotcom plan, if you're interested?
  Ah... anyhow, there's probably a reason that these people are extremely rich and you're not. Luck is obviously a factor, but it takes a certain kind of drive to keep playing the game well after you need to.
  
  --
  Log in or piss off.
3. Re:Why? by TheMathemagician · 2013-04-21 23:02 · Score: 2
  
  Don't you think cruising the world on a mega-yacht filled with every toy imaginable and with a harem of beautiful women would pall after a while? Errr actually no, you're good.
4. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 23:12 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Its not about the power itself. The power is just a form of addiction, sadly.
5. Re:Why? by jareth-0205 · 2013-04-22 00:40 · Score: 2
  
  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...
  Ah, the John McAfee package. Seems to be popular with the techie crowd. We're also having a special this week on the Kim Dotcom plan, if you're interested?
  Ah... anyhow, there's probably a reason that these people are extremely rich and you're not. Luck is obviously a factor, but it takes a certain kind of drive to keep playing the game well after you need to.
  Indeed. Still, a shame. Reminds me of George Best:
  "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."
6. Re:Why? by devent · 2013-04-22 03:42 · Score: 2
  
  For the same reason that the whole premise of capitalism is false: humans are not just driven by greed, or that greed is the most important factor for humans. Humans have very diverse ideas of happiness and fulfilment. Some want to have an easy life with a huge yacht (like you?); some want just do what they are good at (like me); and some want to run a big cooperation. That is also why you don't see any correlation in CEO salary and bonuses and company success.
  
  --
  http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
Re:Shares up? by erroneus · 2013-04-21 21:53 · Score: 2, Interesting

Not saying this is the case, but it would fit:
"Better than expected earnings" reported followed by "CFO leaving Microsoft." What if it turned out he left because someone insisted on filing deceptive or inaccurate numbers? Leaving in protest of such things would make sense of the two events wouldn't it?
Micro$oft by tuppe666 · 2013-04-21 21:56 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.
1. Re:Micro$oft by tgd · 2013-04-22 00:24 · Score: 2
  
  And only in oem numbers. Volume licensing is way, way up. They're kicking ass everywhere but windows sales, and that's commensurate with the decline in pc sales.
  They're doing fine, and even win8 isn't doing badly.
  And more significantly, Windows sales are doing very well -- its only new PC sales that aren't. Revenue is flat, because it was being sold for less, but there's no drop in per-seat demand for it.
  The PC slump is a manufacturer problem, not a Microsoft problem ... yet.
2. Re:Micro$oft by devent · 2013-04-22 01:20 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I can agree to that. I don't really care if Microsoft can create record profits. I do care that I can install Linux now on almost every hardware and it will work. I do care about LibreOffice and open standards so that I can exchange documents freely. I do care about an open web.
  With this for me important aspects of the software industry increasing year after year I couldn't be happier. 15 years ego it was all looking very dim for open source software and free standards. 15 years ego if you didn't used Windows you couldn't do any work and the IE and Microsoft Word and Excel was the "standard".
  So yes, high fives everyone.
  
  --
  http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
Re:Shares up? by bloodhawk · 2013-04-21 22:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

As CFO that would still leave him in deep shit as he signed them off as accurate before submitting them, the SEC won't accept an excuse that he was pressured. It would also leave him in a really bad situation where unless the next person in the job is willing to cover up for him (pretty unlikely) then his next job is going to be calculating his very large lawyer bills trying to keep his arse out of jail.
us$ falls account for gains by cheekyboy · 2013-04-21 22:26 · Score: 2

So profit outside usa remains static.
USD drops n percent.
MS profits rise n percent.
Duhhhhh

--
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
House of cards by tuppe666 · 2013-04-21 22:37 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.
Re:Shares up? by AK+Marc · 2013-04-21 22:41 · Score: 2

Las Vegas is a zero sum game (for any particular playing session, assuming no credits) where the house has the odds in its favor. The Stock market is a zero sum game on a microsecond level (any two trades, but no more), so much less a zero-sum game, and the house has no odds (unless you consider the micro-second traders to be the house). They are similar at a glance, but quite different in practice.

--
Learn to love Alaska
Microsoft Need to compete on Price by tuppe666 · 2013-04-21 22:56 · Score: 2

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.
1. Re:Microsoft Need to compete on Price by ChronoFish · 2013-04-21 23:16 · Score: 2
  
  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.
  
  MS will be the King of the desktop all the way down to the time the last desktop is sold. That will be the end of Windows and maybe Office, but it won't be the end of MS.
  
  MS's monopoly will continue to weaken, but with Billions in the bank and more in assets the Company will persist - barring any illegal activities.
  
  However it's relevance with concerns of /. will weaken.
  
  -CF
No no no no by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 23:28 · Score: 5, Funny

My company supplies office furniture to Microsoft - like chairs - and ...and ...and... Balmer is NOT the problem. No Sir!
Orderly succession by MrMickS · 2013-04-21 23:38 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
1. Re:Orderly succession by Aboroth · 2013-04-22 00:20 · Score: 2
  
  Well you certainly know the Slashdot crowd well enough to know that when you add a little blurb about expecting to be modded down, it actually gives you a much better chance at being modded up.
  
  Of course, because of the typical behavior of Slashdot mods, I expect to be modded down for pointing this out.
2. Re:Orderly succession by LordLucless · 2013-04-22 00:48 · Score: 2
  
  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.
  See, the thing is, most people here don't really want Microsoft to fail. Well, maybe a little bit, but that's not the point. They want Windows to fail. Windows is the monopoly OS that's created a de facto closed standard. Windows is the reason (especially with OSX and its BSD roots) that programs and games aren't made with Linux compatibility.
  Office? Only care about that insofar as it reinforces the desktop OS monopoly. XBox? Many people here actually like the XBox. Cloud services? Unless you're unfortunate enough to have to work with Windows servers, nobody cares about them either.
  What people here want to see is Windows' stranglehold on the desktop OS market go away.
  
  --
  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
3. Re:Orderly succession by Attila+Dimedici · 2013-04-22 01:12 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  In the long run Office will survive because its a standard, nothing else can claim this.
  Once upon a time, Lotus 1-2-3 was the standard spreadsheet and nothing else could claim that. Once upon a time, Wordperfect was the standard word processor and nothing else could claim that. Microsoft Office displaced them because Microsoft controlled the OS that everyone (for all practical purposes) ran them on and Microsoft was able to adapt to new versions of the OS faster because their programmers knew what was going to be in it before anyone else (and because MS programmers wrote the new OS to break something that their competitors used).
  
  --
  The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Can who killed the start menu / Metro apps in wind by Joe_Dragon · 2013-04-21 23:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

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.
Re:They didn't make him the CFO for nothing! by gtall · 2013-04-22 00:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

No dick. The start button removal was a collective decision to use the only strategy MS knows: use the desktop monopoly to force their way into a mobile monopoly. If they could get punters to actually like Metro, then they'd like to see it on their mobiles as well...errr....or something....
Steve Balmer is doing his job. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · 2013-04-22 03:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

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?

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sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact