In the wake of Microsoft’s failed attempt to acquire Yahoo, “this is now an excellent opportunity to sell any Microsoft stock you have left,” Brett Arends writes for The Wall Street Journal.
Arends writes, “The bid itself, followed by its swift abandonment, should raise serious questions about Microsoft’s leadership and direction. Does Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer really know what he is trying to do?”
“Ordinary consumers might legitimately ask if Microsoft’s corporate strategy is any better than the company’s mediocre software,” Arends writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Beautiful line! We couldn’t have done much better ourselves. 
(We would’ve gone with “mediocre-at-best,” instead.)
Arends writes, “It was always hard to see why combining Microsoft’s third-rate Internet strategy with Yahoo’s second-rate Internet strategy was ever going to take on Google. It’s like tying two rocks together in the hope they will float,” Arends writes.
Arends writes, “Private investors should ask themselves why they are bothering to own Microsoft stock directly anyway.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Make the world a better place. Get a Mac and buy some AAPL!
Ouch! Pretty blistering indictment of Microsoft…
lol damn… you gotta love when the truth is brought out into the light
And this is a surprise to who?
Demon,
And this is a surprise to who?
Millions of MSFT-owning dunderheads, that’s who.
What a disaster for Microsoft……
For sure, it’s days of supremacy are long gone.
Microsoft has no direction as a corporation.
They want to be a Media, Game Console, Game studio, consumer electronics, software, online services and internet advertising aggregator company and everything keeps getting in the way of Baller’s Vision of Microsoft being Google. If Ballmer thought he could get away with it he dump everything else and just chase making Microsoft into a Google type company.
I guess it is time to turn off the copy machine at Microsoft HQ.
“Tying two rocks together” is hilarious…
The biggest problem for both these companies is that they BOTH failed to reinvent themselves in “internet time” largely because of entrenched bureaucracies within their corporate structure. It’s still true that Microsoft is a huge, money machine and will be for some time to come but it would make more sense for them to literally become venture capitalists and rather than continue to ‘extend their brand’…build something new… and let others run it. It’s hard to find visionaries but they are out there…and new ideas and ways of making them work show up every day.
“It’s like tying two rocks together in the hope they will float,” Arends writes.
Great line.
It’s time to dance, Monkey Boy. Tell the world how powerful and intuitive Windows Seven will be.
hrmm, and didn’t i just read a poll where 45% of XP users planned on using it all the way until windows 7?
…untill they see how bad 7 is! lmao!
good luck monkey boy! remember, the captain is supposed to go down with the ship!
MDN, when parts of WSJ begin to sound like MacDaily News, you and your staff should celebrate. You have arrived!
A PR disaster that will no doubt effect the share price tomorrow.
Sell your stock before the markets open.
Microsoft’s stock is gonna bomb come tomorrow.
When you bail on M$…what do you have left to embrace?…I’ll tell you what…the best hardware/software combination and best consumer product line on the planet…soon to be the best corporate solution in existence.
This guy is hilarious!
We’ll never know now, but I think Microsoft is fortunate to have not taken over Yahoo. I think it would have been a disaster.
Of course, Microsoft can hardly be praised since their lucky bread was that their own takeover strategy failed…
Microsoft is to innovation what a filthy toilet bowl is to cleanliness. Ain’t that right, Zune Tang?
This jackal is finally being called to task. The bald headed lard a** will be kicked outta the company soon enough.
You know I am almost starting to feel sorry for Balmer – –
nah-not really.
Of course, with Micro$oft’s history of making “mediocre-at-best” copies of Apple’s products, and seemingly going down the pan through the management strategy (lol) of Ballmer, there is only one, last, truely great copy of Apple left for them to do:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you “The Second Coming of William H. Gates III”
Marvel at his charisma-less key note presentations; swoon at his grey turtle-neck top and slacks; laugh as Micro$oft still go down the pan…
The last line in the article:
“Among other big names, the fund also holds substantial stakes in Apple and Google, which are, perhaps justifiably, much more expensive.”
Jeez. Could you find a worse looking photograph? Look at that “old white man” frown.
That’s just a bit mean.
Ballmer should just take his billions and go home. Somewhere out there, there’s a Lou Gerstner for Microsoft, and Ballmer sure ain’t it.
-jcr
Eh Im no fan but i can offer at least one reason to own MSFT, its at a relatively good price to earnings and business is doing well which uses predominantly MSFT products, and lots of them.
To be honest, I think MSFT would do better if they got OUT of the OS market and just sold there software tools. They arnt half bad and they have lots of them.
May Ballmer rule until the kingdom collapses.
Apple does not let OSX run on anyone elses machines (which is fine with me). Linux is not quite ready for prime time (or is it). Is there a mass alternative to M$? Can Apple really sell 80% of the computers in the world? While I say no; I wonder who in the eary days of each product thought it would sell 80% of the MP3 players, or be blowing away the smart phone competition? These are interesting times.
Maybe Apple should buy somebody like RedHat, start charging for the OS (if they can) and begin development of an alternative OS. One for the masses. Or, maybe not.
No questions about Microsoft’s direction or strategy here. I put in an order for another 100 shares of MSFT just this morning. Yahoo doesn’t have anything mighty Microsoft can’t create themselves. Pretty soon the internet will be synonymous with Microsoft. It’s what people want.
In 5 years Google will be a distant memory as 97% of already delighted Windows computer users will flock to the MSN Windows Live offering now being strategized at Microsoft. Imagine combining the power of Vista, xBox, Zune and MSN. The innovative geniuses in Redmond already have, and it’s gonna be great. There’s a big payoff for the wise ones sticking with Windows. Hey MAC sheep it’s not too late to get on the Vista train.
Your potential. Our passion.™
If you want to read an absolutely searing, devastating and merciless attack on the whole MicroHoo fiasco, go to:
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/05/ballmer-now-looking-for-other-companies.html
I guess in real life the Fake Steve Jobs is not really that Apple friendly, but his take on the YahooSoft affair is brilliant. He actually outdoes Roughly Drafted on this one.
“Microsoft’s corporate strategy no better than their mediocre software”
Yeah right… with what this journalist call “mediocre software”, they took over the world!!! This is poor journalism. MS software is okay… Apple is just better, but… too damn’ closed!!!
“It’s like tying two rocks together in the hope they will float,”
Wow, two great ones in one article!
Hey ZT….too late, I had a Zune already this morning. Looks like you should have as well judging that your comment was full of Shyte.
Microsoft needs to focus on what it already does. Windows, Office, XBox. All the other stuff they need to dump.
Microsoft would like to replace Steve Ballmer, but all they could replace him with is another Steve Ballmer. I imagine Microsoft has evolved into good-old boys country club where loyalty to your boss is more important than ideas, vision and results.
If the top man (Ballmer) has neither vision or ideas, he cannot grasp or conceive of the next big thing. And he surrounds himself with “yes” boys and girls that repeatedly tell Ballmer that after it is all said and done, they still have 95% of the computer OS market and are very profitable.
I am sure most Microsoft employees laugh at Balmer behind his back.
MDN,
You should open a Ballmer photo gallery with all those flattering shots you’ve got of him. It could be the next internet sensation.
Right on, bon!
Call it Ballickr or something like that.
Even the MSM is admitting the awful truth about Macro$ucks, but the sleeples snore on …
TImbo… I almost choked on my potato chips!
I’m sure many of us have heard the parable of the Dog and the Scorpion. And I’m sure we’ve all considered MS to be the Scorpion within every partnership it enters.
MS CAN’T change. It doesn’t WANT to change. It’s time to let the Scorpion drown.
To extend some mythology, it’s time that all that energy — read: money — of MS be reborn — or give life — to a new entities. Phoenix0like, if you will.
Open-source Windows. Sell off every other IP. And watch the newly formed software companies create and prosper wildly through REAL innovations and sportsmanly competition.
Mr. Ballmer, your empire was created on misery.
Creating joy is much more profitable.
Believe it.
They do have two product that will bring them back to their glorious days. These products will be their crowning achievement!! Ask Zune Tongued In The Butt, he know.
1. Big Ass Table
2. Zune…. hahahahaha. ( sorry that product makes me laugh )
That’s right. Keep your faith in Ballmer, you mindless Microcrap followers. Just so long as I get do watch the mounting pile of shit that is Ballmer’s innovations hit the fan, let the monkey boy keep on dancing. Even Gates won’t be able to salvage what Ballmer leaves behind. Ah, the sweet smell of justice.
STRONG WORDS!
And to thinks, Gates left the company in the hands of this nut case!
Makes one thank that Gates doesn’t give a hoot, as to what happens to his life’s work…
Steve Jobs would never display such poor judgment!
Since when do we give a shiest about Brett Arends?
Time for a Wall Street bit¢h fight…
MSFT is all like, “Oh no you di-int!”
WST is like, “Oh yes I did!”
A then there’s like this cartoon dust cloud with fingernails and hair flying…
WSJ writes Ballmer’s preemptive obituary.
If Ballmer thought he could get away with it he dump everything else and just chase making Microsoft into a Google type company.
But he already got MS OUT of that business!
From the US print-edition WSJ, 5/5/08, page A12:
“Mr. Ballmer acknowledged it was he who killed Microsoft’s earlier effort in paid Internet search long before Google turned the business into a virtual mint.”
So… Ballmer was about to spend 45-some billion to get back into a market he himself fscked MS out of??
“Wow” indeed. NObody else could remain employed after such a series of bonehead blunders.
Ballmy isn’t qualified to be CEO of a garage sale. What does he have on MS’s board that keeps him from getting axed??
Jeez. Could you find a worse looking photograph? Look at that “old white man” frown.
Give him a little black mustache. Then think of April 1945…
Here are some replacement candidates that MS should consider when Ballmer finally gets the boot:
1. John Sculley
He never got to finish the job of running Apple into the ground, how perfect if he could finish the task at Microsoft.
2. George W. Bush
He will be needing a new job later this year and his accomplishments during the past eight years speak for themselves.
3. Donald Rumsfeld
No one can create a strategy like the master of the Iraq quagmire. Just think what he could do at MS.
4. Bill and Hillary Clinton
Talk about the dream team. Here are a couple that is second to none when it comes to lying, cheating, and playing dirty. They could take over for Gates and Ballmer and MS would never break stride.
5. Kenneth Lay
Too bad is is dead because his skill at Enron in bilking cash from investors for worthless stock is a perfect match for MS which bilks cash from people for worthless software.
@ye Zune Tang ya say…
“No questions about Microsoft’s direction or strategy here. I put in an order for another 100 shares of MSFT just this morning. Yahoo doesn’t have anything mighty Microsoft can’t create themselves. Pretty soon the internet will be synonymous with Microsoft. It’s what people want.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHH snot and drool AHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH
HAHAHHA im choking HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAH burp HAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA fart HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You forgot
6. Barack Obama
He is always ready to tackle the issues with his dramatic ability to take a stand and vote Present
7. Ted Kennedy
He would change the name of the company to MicroScotch. Then he and the board could sit around for a few years figuring out new ways to screw up the company. At least there he wouldn’t be wasting our tax dollars.
8. Nancy Pelosi
She would change the name to MicroScum. She’d fire the board and hire all of her cronies. The business focus would be to fleece as many customers as they can before they can empty their corporations bank accounts.
I could go on, but if you didn’t get the point by now, you never will.
6. Carly Fiorina
Just the person to head up a merger with Yahoo.
7. James McNerney, CEO of Boeing
His management of the 787 “Dreamliner” program would mesh ideally with MS’s software development practices.
8. Nero, former emperor of the Roman Empire
Someone who understood fiddling while the city burns.
9. Daffy Duck
Comparable dancing skills.
10. Bubba the local unemployed redneck bar fly.
Ballmer-like intelligence and temperament.
Amusing so much anti-MS chatter yet your hope of iphone getting enterprise acceptance relies on Microsoft ActiveSync connectivity ..
Big merger plans = red flag for tanking earnings. A merger is meant to obfuscate the numbers; disguise the continuing slide; create a quantum discontinuance in the negative trend. The question is why didn’t he follow through? I’m still waiting for MSFT to fall into the single digit range.
@ MobileAdmin
I believe we’ve covered the Embrace and Extinguish method a number of times. To kill the dark lord you have to get hold of his ring.
Or, at least lose a hand. Then come back and kick his ass later, while convincing him to destroy his mentor, the Emperor, before you send him off in a pyre.
May the Source be with you.
Hey where’d that hook come from? Aaaaagghhh……
They are being cruel. Windows is a necessity of the average computer user due to the software that it runs. Also, I don’t like their insulting of Yahoo! After all, what is the most popular internet site in the world? Pretty lame, WSJ, but a satisfying article nonetheless.
This actually makes me worry about the WSJ a little. I guess we already knew its best days were behind it. But, while the day that the WSJ started to sound like MacDailyNews may be a proud one for Apple fans–even if it’s only Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ that sounds thus way–it is not a very happy day for the quality of American journalism.
Sorry not to whoop and holler–I would if these quotes were from television, or somebody’s blog. But it’s as sad to be present for the death of the WSJ as it would have been to see the death of Apple in 1996.
Zune Tang,
You can do better. Come on, man – you can do it!
“Windows is a necessity of the average computer user due to the software that it runs.”
Best laugh today. Thanks!
I don’t know how they expected to merge the #2 and #3 search engines and get to #1. If they averaged out, at best they’d be at #2.5 The only other way I know how to get 1 from both 2 and 3 is to subtract 2 from 3 which is still a dubious approach at best. I do not believe they could as #3 buy out the #2 spot and then basically kill it and magically catapult past Google. Have about as much chance of that happening as Iraq becoming a useful world power like Japan did after WWII.
As far as the captain going down with the ship, perhaps that’s not really why Ballmer’s the CEO. After all, he’s just a more baboon-like Uncle Fester. Methinks he went down ‘on’ the ship aka Bill Gates’ U.S.S. Microsoftie. Now excuse me while I talk my PowerBook out of committing seppuku for allowing me to type such a disturbing mental picture.
“Hey MAC sheep it’s not too late to get on the Vista train.”
Is that like the Poo-Choo train from South Park?
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