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.