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Gates Book and DOJ Trial Contradictions

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it-never-looks-good-for-uncle-bill dept.

Veralden writes "Here is a story about Gates and another MS witness contradicting on how their sales data is recorded. According to Gates, they have sales results in digital form and a witness testified that they have paper sales records. MS denies this, but the article seems to take a more objective view. " Here is the story.

1 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. It doesn't add up by YeOldeGnurd · · Score: 2
    Let's see...
    • Bill says that they know sales figures by product by sales channel.
    • MS traditionally has claimed a "Chinese wall" between OS development and application development.
    • MS now claims that they can't calculate profit and cost by product, which is different than sales.
    A cynic would say "just subtract the departmental costs for OS development from the OS sales, and do the same for applications.

    In slight defense of MS, I have to point out that MS is largely a sales and marketing company, and they might not do a very good job of splitting indirect costs (such as sales trips, marketing studies, and some advertising) into separate OS / Application components.

    What they need is an "Activity Based Costing" (ABC) study.

    Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity

    --
    ...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...