“An ugly first week for Microsoft Corp’s new financial year, probably its most important to date, has done little to inspire confidence that the software giant can jumpstart a stubbornly stagnant share price,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters.
“The world’s largest software company, whose stock remains mired around $30, had prepared a multi-pronged assault to try and break into the crucial mobile computing space this year and take Apple Inc and Google Inc down a peg,” Rigby reports. “But on Monday, it announced a $6.2 billion writedown of a 2007 Internet-advertising acquisition – a reminder that Microsoft has a patchy track record when it ventures outside of its Windows and Office comfort zone.”
Rigby reports, “Days later, Vanity Fair blamed Steve Ballmer’s ‘astonishingly foolish’ leadership for a ‘lost decade,’ in one of the most scathing articles ever written about the CEO. It was not the news agenda Microsoft had in mind as it prepared to unveil fourth-quarter results on July 19. The writeoff is expected to hand the company its first quarterly loss – on paper – since going public in 1986.”
“Ballmer has become a lightning rod for this failure of innovation. Vanity Fair quotes one former manager saying Microsoft had turned itself into ‘technology’s answer to Sears,'” Rigby reports. “Some point out that Microsoft’s $6.2 billion charge for an ill-conceived Internet-centric acquisition is actually better than they deserve. Ballmer offered to pay $47.5 billion for fading Internet giant Yahoo Inc in 2008. That company’s market value is now less than half that.”
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MacDailyNews Take: These people simply fail to recognize the brilliant genius of Steve Ballmer. We like his strategy. We like it a lot. May he remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes!