“Microsoft Corp., coping with its first annual sales drop, will make frugality a new way of life, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said,” Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg. “‘This is not a crash diet where you stop eating for a couple of quarters — this is a new diet regime where you slim down and stay slim,’ Liddell, 51, said in an interview at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. ‘It’s actually about dialing up the importance of costs.’”

MacDailyNews Take: It’s actually about Microsoft’s – quote – leadership – unquote – that’s full of horseshit. Liddlell and Ballmer and the rest of Microsoft’s failing executive team should go on a permanent horseshit diet.

Bass continues, “Microsoft, which slashed $3 billion in operating expenses and cut about 5,000 jobs this year, expects software industry sales to expand 5 percent to 10 percent annually after the recession ends, Liddell said in the July 27 interview. That compares with Microsoft’s 18 percent sales growth in 2008. The company also faces a new challenge from Google Inc. and Apple Inc., forcing it to keep spending on new product development.”

“Managers wanting to hire workers will need to balance them against cuts in other areas, and the company will trim spending on travel and company parties,” Bass reports. “Microsoft may relocate some customer support to countries with cheaper labor.”

Bass reports, “Microsoft’s revenue plummeted 17 percent last quarter, missing the average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey by more than $1 billion. Sales fell across all of the company’s product lines. In the Windows division, which accounts for about a quarter of sales, revenue dropped 29 percent. Sales in the business division, comprised mainly of the Office software, fell 13 percent.”

Bass reports, “So far, the cost cuts haven’t kept up with the revenue declines. Operating margins will probably continue to narrow for the next two quarters because Microsoft can’t pare research and marketing spending to match revenue losses, Liddell said on a conference call with analysts last week.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: As if buying Apple’s latest software or hardware product, taking it apart, and then putting it back together ass-backwards while jumping around screaming about “innovation” is so expensive.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Kevin P." for the heads up.]