“Microsoft Corp.’s share price may not be the only casualty of the software powerhouse’s surprise earnings miss. It might also hit company morale, becoming the latest gripe of employees who are already disillusioned with product delays and a once high-flying stock that has stagnated for the past three years, analysts said,” Scott Hillis reports for Reuters. “‘There are some folks who have been there for a long time and who will resent the way things are being run as a bureaucracy. And maybe they were there for the big stock run-up and they’re seeing the stock not move now,’ said Matt Rosoff, analyst with Directions on Microsoft. ‘If you think things are not being run well, then yesterday will lend credence to your arguments,’ Rosoff said.”
“Microsoft shares tumbled 11.4 percent to $24.15 on Friday, their biggest one-day drop in 5 years, a day after the company said earnings would be hurt by increased spending to stay abreast of competition such as Google Inc.,” Hillis reports. “A company spokesman had no immediate comment on employee morale. Investors treated the move as the latest stumble by the Redmond, Washington-based company, which last month said it would delay the release of the next versions of its cash-spinning Windows operating system and Office software package. Minimsft, a popular blog run by a Microsoft employee who advocates a drastic slimming-down of the company, lamented the results, exclaiming: ‘Yee-ouch! Right in the kisser!’ Wryly remarking on the idea that Microsoft could eventually pull out of the doldrums, the anonymous author wrote: ‘It is always just a few quarters out. For what, the last five years?'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Schadenfreude… too… intense… here… quote…
How are monopolies lost? Think about it. Who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Look at Microsoft, who’s running Microsoft? Right, the sales guy. Case closed. – Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004 (source)
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