“A top hedge fund manager said Tuesday that Microsoft has a business model that makes it a better company than Apple for the long-term,” Maureen Farrell reports for CNET.
“Jeffrey Ubben of ValueAct made the comments at the Value Investing Conference in New York. Ubben’s firm announced a $2 billion position in Microsoft earlier this year and is thought to be a driving force behind CEO Steve Ballmer’s decision to retire as well as Microsoft’s new stock buyback and dividend increase announced earlier Tuesday,” Farrell reports. “Ubben said he likes that Microsoft charges a lot of money, makes a lot of money, and has enterprise contracts that will last for years. He noted that Microsoft is ‘in the plumbing’ of big corporations.”
Farrell reports, “By contrast, companies like Apple and Samsung, which cater more to average consumers, have to keep churning out new products every few months even if changes are incremental. Ubben refused to discuss his stake in Microsoft in greater detail, saying his hedge fund and Microsoft ‘are in the middle of stuff.’ ValueAct should play in even more active role in deciding what’s next for the company. Microsoft offered a board seat to ValueAct president Mason Morfit in late August.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iCal’ed.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “David E.” for the heads up.]
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