Aren't there more...professional ways of auctioning off your company's name? This seems to have a lot of PR stuntness to it.

Seems to me that's rather the point. Also, won't Microsoft just bring a suit against the subsequent owners, one of those you-must-prove-you-have-a-legitimate-use-rather-than-merely-domain-squatting ones?

These guys are grandfathered before MSFT came to portugal, sure. But anyone else who bought the name would not necessarily be afforded the same protection, especially since at this point MSFT would have a very good case that they name was bought simply to cash in on the Microsoft name. So basically no one but "Microsoft of Redmond" would be able to place any value on the name.

An interesting conundrum as Portugal joined the EU in 1986 and must conform to all the assorted Euro rules and regulations so the new owner of the name must also do like wise from date of name registration transfer !

Oh I can see the suckers lining up now to be milked or how soon we forget about "Lindows" too !