“Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer says he plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the company’s unprofitable Internet business. His investors say they want proof he knows what to do with the money,” Amy Thomson reports for Bloomberg.
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, oh. Are they finally waking up? Here’s hoping that this is not the beginning of the end for Ballmer. In fact, everyone raise your glass: May Steve Ballmer run Microsoft for as long as it takes!
Thomson continues, “After walking away from six months of on-again, off-again talks about buying all or part of Yahoo! Inc., owner of the No. 2 Web search engine, Ballmer has left shareholders wondering if he has a plan B.”
“Microsoft, the biggest software maker, has lost about $90 billion in market value this year as Ballmer vacillated on Yahoo and failed to show how he would crack Google Inc.’s dominance of Internet advertising,” Thompson reports. “Shareholders will look for ideas at a meeting with Ballmer tomorrow, said Kim Caughey, a Fort Pitt Capital Group Inc. analyst in Pittsburgh. ‘I’m a little concerned; I’ll be honest,’ said Caughey, whose firm manages $1.2 billion and owns Microsoft shares. Ballmer needs to ‘put a hot, bright light of clarity on where’s all the money going.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Introductions seem to be in order here: Kim, Drain. Drain, Kim.
Thompson continues, “Ballmer, along with Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell and the presidents of Microsoft’s three businesses, will address analysts and investors tomorrow at company headquarters in Redmond, Washington.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oooh, goody. Big Ass Table Demo.
Thompson continues, “The company has spent about $9 billion in the past 2 1/2 years building its Internet business, according to Directions on Microsoft, a research firm in Kirkland, Washington.”
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, what Internet business? There is nothing remotely resembling what should exist to the tune of $9 billion dollars and 2 1/2 years. Building and operating a cash furnace, now that would make sense; not an “Internet business.”
Thompson continues, “The online division is Microsoft’s smallest with $3.21 billion in sales last year, or 5 percent of the total of $60.4 billion. The business lost $1.23 billion last year, double the previous year’s loss, as it hired more people, built computer data centers, and made acquisitions including $6 billion spent on Seattle-based ad company AQuantive Inc.”
“The bid for Yahoo shows Ballmer is aware that Microsoft has been lacking in ideas for the Internet age, said Andy Miedler, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in St. Louis,” Thompson reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, you’re sure as hell ain’t gonna find ’em at Yahoo!
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Streetool” for the heads up.]
We hereby advise Microsoft shareholders that there is nothing to see here. Everything’s fine. Relax. Ballmer has a plan. Please, just let him execute it.
(Hey, if they bought shares in Microsoft sometime in the last 6 or so years, they’ll certainly buy that advice.)
“cash furnace” LMAO!!!
Ballmer is our Hero, he is going to bring down the Microsoft Monopoly…
FTFA: “Steve Ballmer says he plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the company’s unprofitable Internet business.”
Isn’t he also spending $ 500 million in a campaign that’s trying to tell people Vista ain’t that bad after all? Throwing money at problems. It’s very clear that it’s the sales guy who trying to run the show, with no idea how to make it right.
Long live Steve Ballmer, please don’t ever leave MS, they need you B A D !
Please keep Windows compatible with all the versions that have come before at all costs, don’t ever retool into a modern OS.
Psssssst Mr B, don’t give that 90 billion dollar capital meltdown a single thought, it means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Buy Yahoo and shut it down. That will help MS get rid of all that pesky capital laying around.
Hire A LOT more engineers, pay them massive salaries, this will be great for the US economy job statistics.
Innovate with the workweek schedule, everyone at MS only works one day/week and has the rest off to be with family, think of the positive PR this will generate, call it MS family values.
Whatever you do, please don’t ever retire or leave MS!
All of us here at MDN really love you man!
“Hire A LOT more engineers, pay them massive salaries, this will be great for the US economy job statistics.”
They really need a few dozen more executives with catchy titles:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/a-d.aspx
(e.g., Will Poole, Corporate Vice President, Unlimited Potential Group; Scott Charney, Corporate Vice President, Trustworthy Computing)
Spin off a business that provides ongoing support but no new development for Windows XP. Ditto for Office. Then, shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders. Did I mention kill Vista?
Of course there’ll be a mortgage foreclosure crisis in Redmond, but this will be a small amount of pain and suffering compared to say Michigan or Ohio.
Here’s a kick in the pants for you:
If Microsoft had invest $9 Billion in AAPL two and a half years ago, that would be worth almost $24.75 BILLION right now.
At current prices at Staples, that’s 82,775,919.733 Executive leather chairs to toss around, or 495,099,019.804 chairs for the rest of us schlubs
Around Redmond, fractions of chairs count…
Ballmer= innovation= hostile takeover of Krispy Kreme and Dunk’in Doughnuts
What if M$ had only kept their “Apple Saving” investment when Steve Jobs returned…do the math…it’s amazing.
It’s time for Egg Ducker to go on another world tour.
“What we’ve gone through in the last several years has caused some people to question ‘Can we trust Microsoft?'”
– Steve Ballmer
If Microsoft had any sense, they’d realize by now that to survive the company must embark on a Steve Jobs style takeover where all the useless junk and fat are ripped right out.
Downsizing and focusing on what they can actually do well (I know, MS may be hardpressed in that one) will keep the company going, as opposed to being the leviathan monstrosity they currently are where the only avenue left is to crash and burn.
Of course, to undertake this new approach would mean pissing off virtually all enterprise users and the home users, who, for whatever reason, don’t have the gumption to look beyond Windows.
@Blue Dream,
“…hostile takeover of Krispy Kreme and Dunk’in Doughnuts.”
Rob ‘Glazed-donuts’ Glaser won’t let Uncle Fester within a 30 kilometer radius of *any* Krispy Kreme store, let alone the corporate headquarters…
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Robert Glaser
With Gates gone, Ballmer is now focusing on destroying Apple at all cost. Just wait and see how sneaky MS will be to try and grab any market Apple has gained.
90 Freak’n B I L L I O N dollar market cap meltdown?
Oh My Freak’n G O D, where is the outrage by stockholders?
All you windoze fanboy trolls, now is the time to BUY A LOT of Microsoft stock, the price is RIGHT. Show Balmy you really care.
Buy a bunch of the new Windows Vista giftcards for all your friends.
You know you wanna show the love for your favorite OS, Windows Vista! Come on Windows fanboyz, buy buy buy!
Get your Vista now because the next version of the OS is gonna be a LOT higher priced, that’s Steve Balmers real profit strategy!
good perspective
Thanks
I wonder what the guys looking at the servers at Staples think when I priced the order for 495,099,019.804 chairs.
If they start a push to get “Uncle Fester” out of there, I’ll light torches, gather the villagers, and go to Redmond to stage a protest. As Apple fans, we MUST not allow this sentiment to take root.
If Bill Gates (OR John Sculley, take your pick) was the worst thing that ever happened to Apple, Steve Ballmer is the best.
Leave him there to finish the job!
Peace.
Olmecmystic
Idea drought???
The only idea they ever had was and still is- “Let’s wait and see what Apple’s doing”
Their XBOX App Store is the latest “innovation”
developers, developers, developers….
snakes, liars, thieves….
From an extract of Steve Ballmer’s memo announcing the latest management re-org at Microsoft published at All Things Digital yesterday evening.
· Apple: In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.
Accidentally hit Submit!!
Is it any wonder that MSFT is so confused? A CEO who doesn’t seem to understand that you can’t provide great end-to-end experiences unless you control the whole widget and who also doesn’t understand that you can’t create compelling user experiences unless you really understand how people want to work.
Ballmer idea drought
If Ballmer rained ideas like he rains sweat, he’d have Apple AND Google easily beat.
Ballmer, save yourself & the world the grief. Milk Office until it dies, then shut the company down.
Everything else is a pointless sideshow.
Hey, I’ve got a company for sale. Can I have a billion for it while you’re handing them out like candy bars?
the opening line to the shareholders is “please come closer while we play a little 3 card monte”
Maybe MS could really sink another nail in the coffin by giving their investors a return, not money of course, something better…points that they could use at an MS online store.