“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.”
Read more in the full article here.
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!
A mantra we see all the time at this website is, “May Steve Balmer remain Microsoft CEO as long as it takes”. Now, we’ve all assumed that this is the cherished aim of all Apple fanboys to see the downfall of Microsoft – but I think, like any tradition, we can keep it going religiously without realising that it had a use-by date. I believe it is time we start cheering Microsoft a bit, because, as much as we love Apple products, we discovered that we really do need Microsoft to give Apple a competitive shove every so often.
At its DNA, Apple is no different to Microsoft, except that Apple has a nicer OS, more stable and nicer products – but Apple is just another ruthless money-grubbing corporation that thinks only of the bottom line. It won’t hesitate to “not please everyone” i.e. cut important products for smaller market segments, if it makes more MONEEEEE.
Think carefully, Apple fanboys, do you really want the computer space dominated by Apple, a company that only makes products for consumers – ignoring professionals – simply because that’s the way to make a $110 billion cash pile. As you play your games on Mac/iPhone/iPad, what’s going to happen to those of us who need to get work done, if Microsoft ever were to lose its majority status. If Apple were the top dog in the street, and it continues to just focus on the majority of consumer users, it might make Apple a stash of money, but we suffer. But Apple couldn’t care as long as the cash remains offshore outside the good ‘ol US of A.
Microsoft has always been “technology’s answer to Sears” (AKA K-Mart)