Microsoft takes a $6.2bn bath with aQuantive web ads write-down
Microsoft has taken a $6.2bn hit by writing down the value of aQuantive - the mega acquisition Steve Ballmer boasted would transform his company into an online advertising biz. The Windows software giant suffered the financial blow in its fourth fiscal quarter, which closed at the end of June and the results of which are due to …
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Microsoft's demise will not be official until...
...Scott Adams replaces the PHB with the CDB (Chrome-Dome Boss).
Re: Microsoft's demise will not be official until...
Erm, the PHB is already a "chrome dome", it's just that the hair on either side of his bald patch stands up proud and pointy.
Re: Microsoft's demise will not be official until...
Yup, should have made that CCDB - Completely Chrome Domed Boss.....
remember the yahoo! bid
This loss is peanuts compared with what would have become of the yahoo acquisition attempt, had the yahoo shareholders not lost grip with reality and turned down the golden egg. Lucky isn't the word.
Dear Steve...
Dear Steve
The legacy that you were left was a company that had the best enterprise integration stack on the planet. Whilst it's true that many of your own people didn't fully understand the full potential, there was enough there for you to be able to forge ahead.
First, we had the compartmentalised focus on product groups (that originally had a focus on split up / sell off) which cut across the long-term interests of your customers and saw strategic products being deployed tactically in the enterprise space just to hit the numbers.
Then, we had this dream of making MS a consumer-focused company, a 'vision' so fundamentally flawed that one has to wonder what your shareholders were thinking of.
The reason for MS's existence, in the face of IBM's OS2 PC operating system is that MS took Windows to the consumer space but the success was based on the consumer then taking Windows to the enterprise space.
You have enough good people in MS who really know how to leverage the advantage of the integrated MS product stack. Let them do their job and stop letting beancounters get in the way.
OS2
...and for the record, as an IBM employee, I was the guy who tried to 'open-door' IBM CEO John Akers to tell him that OS2 must be heavily marketed into the consumer space to drive upwards into the enterprise space. What a different world we could have lived in...
Even if it were likely, I'm not sure I'd want Linux to 'take over'. It's much more fun as a tool for geeks and/or serious people who want something reliable to do stuff, e.g. Google and the military.
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