Turns out that selling tons of Xbox 360's for a loss, and hiring lots of new Windows Live (er, MSN) employees, while doing something else that'll increase costs in the future (our execs just gave guidance, but didn't explain why they think expenses are going up), means that we miss earnings estimates.
Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Monitor has the most complete analysis of our fiscal 2006 Q3 results. The market doesn't like these results and is pounding our stock lower by around 6% in after market trading.
CNBC is reporting "Microsoft slammed on earnings report." More on Memeorandum.
The market is a mean and unforgiving place. Our profits are up 13%, but our stock is down. It all comes to expectations and stockholders don't like the increased expectations on the cost side of the balance sheet.
On the other hand, Xbox sales are higher than expected, and that will turn into profits in future years (the more games, and other things, sold on each Xbox brings in money that counteracts the money we're losing on each one sold).
As a blogger who works for a company, and is also a shareholder, I'm always wondering just what I should say about such events?
I know that talking about financials is about the biggest risk there is for those of us who live our lives in the public eye. I know people who've been fired from other companies for doing just that.
So, I'm just going to lay it out there and play it straight.
What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?
Scobleizer 
Just don’t worry about it.
Wall Street don’t care about much except the next quarter.
Soulless place , it is.
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Just don’t worry about it.
Wall Street don’t care about much except the next quarter.
Soulless place , it is.
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Shareholder critique is usually a painful part of investing. It is important, however, and it’s fortunate that the companies that innovated Internet networking are among the beneficiaries of its transparency. Intra corporate feedback as a group is better than individual therapy, but it’s especially difficult in a robust company. Your company and fellow investors need access to this resource, and the public is more apt to engage a company whose business decisions adhere to common sense. Thanks again and it’s appreciated that your post was not emotional but clear and concise.
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Shareholder critique is usually a painful part of investing. It is important, however, and it’s fortunate that the companies that innovated Internet networking are among the beneficiaries of its transparency. Intra corporate feedback as a group is better than individual therapy, but it’s especially difficult in a robust company. Your company and fellow investors need access to this resource, and the public is more apt to engage a company whose business decisions adhere to common sense. Thanks again and it’s appreciated that your post was not emotional but clear and concise.
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This is bad news. MSFT is starting to falter – yes, there products haven’t exactly been as hype-inducing as OSX or the iPod, but they always brought home the bacon. It would now appaer that that’s no longer the case and Windows Vista looks to be a dud on an epic scale.
The most amazing think about this is that there has been little direct competition yet. Google hasn’t really entered Microsoft’s space, RedHat is sticking to Unix conversions generally and Apple is only now starting to look like a credible threat to Microsoft.
I think that Microsoft could come crumbling down like a house of cards. Microsoft’s track record on diversification has been absolutely abysmal, with only the xbox being a decent product. Everything else has flopped badly. If the cash cows that finance these flops vaporizes, what is Microsoft to do?
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This is bad news. MSFT is starting to falter – yes, there products haven’t exactly been as hype-inducing as OSX or the iPod, but they always brought home the bacon. It would now appaer that that’s no longer the case and Windows Vista looks to be a dud on an epic scale.
The most amazing think about this is that there has been little direct competition yet. Google hasn’t really entered Microsoft’s space, RedHat is sticking to Unix conversions generally and Apple is only now starting to look like a credible threat to Microsoft.
I think that Microsoft could come crumbling down like a house of cards. Microsoft’s track record on diversification has been absolutely abysmal, with only the xbox being a decent product. Everything else has flopped badly. If the cash cows that finance these flops vaporizes, what is Microsoft to do?
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Microsoft has managed earnings estimates well in the past. Make exciting products like the 360 and maybe the stock will turn around. Apple’s stock turned around because they started creating exciting products again, and excited customers tell others. Vista and Office 2007? Maybe they are good products but they just aren’t very exciting.
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Microsoft has managed earnings estimates well in the past. Make exciting products like the 360 and maybe the stock will turn around. Apple’s stock turned around because they started creating exciting products again, and excited customers tell others. Vista and Office 2007? Maybe they are good products but they just aren’t very exciting.
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What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?
Tough one, as you say. I guess all anyone can ask for is your perspective, which you’ve given to some extent.
Why you like the company and what you think its future is. Sentiment is important. Morale inside the company, which is now laid bare by blogs, is key.
So by just offering your honest perspective is helpful to people deciding whether to buy or sell the stock.
It would also help if I knew what this meant:
“..while doing something else that’ll increase costs in the future (our execs just gave guideance, but didn’t explain why they think expenses are going up)…”
Do you know that the “something else” is, and if so, can you share it?
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What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?
Tough one, as you say. I guess all anyone can ask for is your perspective, which you’ve given to some extent.
Why you like the company and what you think its future is. Sentiment is important. Morale inside the company, which is now laid bare by blogs, is key.
So by just offering your honest perspective is helpful to people deciding whether to buy or sell the stock.
It would also help if I knew what this meant:
“..while doing something else that’ll increase costs in the future (our execs just gave guideance, but didn’t explain why they think expenses are going up)…”
Do you know that the “something else” is, and if so, can you share it?
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After the announcement, as late as 5:04 PM, Google Finance was showing that MSFT was up at ECN an additional 13 cents. Google Finance also shows the time of the quote. Clearly it was incorrect. All the sites, including CNNFN, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money was showing the stock to be down about one dollar. Well, these sites had a time stamp of 20 minutes earlier.
I got into the impression that Google is showing me ECN quotes in realtime, because they put a more recent time stamp. Hence MSFT is recovered back. Google Finance cheated me and caused me a big loss.
My question is if a public company which is advertisement based has any responsibility to offer the service correctly. Could Google in this case be liable for my loss. They clearly are lagging in the freshness of their ECN quotes but try to give an impression that their quotes are in fact fresher than others. I saved the browser window as an evidence that Google cheated me.
This is an important public question because we will be consuming more and more advertisement supported services. Could we held the company responsible even if we are not paying the company directly.
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After the announcement, as late as 5:04 PM, Google Finance was showing that MSFT was up at ECN an additional 13 cents. Google Finance also shows the time of the quote. Clearly it was incorrect. All the sites, including CNNFN, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money was showing the stock to be down about one dollar. Well, these sites had a time stamp of 20 minutes earlier.
I got into the impression that Google is showing me ECN quotes in realtime, because they put a more recent time stamp. Hence MSFT is recovered back. Google Finance cheated me and caused me a big loss.
My question is if a public company which is advertisement based has any responsibility to offer the service correctly. Could Google in this case be liable for my loss. They clearly are lagging in the freshness of their ECN quotes but try to give an impression that their quotes are in fact fresher than others. I saved the browser window as an evidence that Google cheated me.
This is an important public question because we will be consuming more and more advertisement supported services. Could we held the company responsible even if we are not paying the company directly.
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Well, Anonymous, if you look at the bottom of the page that you saved, you’ll see the following notes:
“Information is provided ‘as is’ and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice.”
and
“Quotes are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, 20 minutes for AMEX and NYSE.”
Seems pretty clear…
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Well, Anonymous, if you look at the bottom of the page that you saved, you’ll see the following notes:
“Information is provided ‘as is’ and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice.”
and
“Quotes are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, 20 minutes for AMEX and NYSE.”
Seems pretty clear…
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Dominic, I have some hints, but I’m not willing to discuss them.
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Dominic, I have some hints, but I’m not willing to discuss them.
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#6: No, Google isn’t liable if you made some kind of trade based on something you saw on Google. They have a disclaimer at the bottom of the page: “Information is provided ‘as is’ and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice.”
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#6: No, Google isn’t liable if you made some kind of trade based on something you saw on Google. They have a disclaimer at the bottom of the page: “Information is provided ‘as is’ and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice.”
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so, you develop product at a deficit, make labor investments, O/S hasn’t been released…the stock market doesn’t understand “tomorrow” – that’s why that price is only good for today š
1 year from now to the day things will look much different, and the market of course will be singing a different tune
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so, you develop product at a deficit, make labor investments, O/S hasn’t been released…the stock market doesn’t understand “tomorrow” – that’s why that price is only good for today š
1 year from now to the day things will look much different, and the market of course will be singing a different tune
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M$ stocks are long term investment stocks. You could either dump them today if you bought them 20 years ago or hang on to them and hope Vista actually delivers without any further hiccups. Also wall street is much more concerned about the short term and sometimes do get it wrong, like how AMD stocks fell a couple of weeks back simply because an analyst at Goldman who held Intel stocks, claimed that the future was not green for AMD. In a nutshell hang on to those stocks and keep helping M$ with this good blog of yours.
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M$ stocks are long term investment stocks. You could either dump them today if you bought them 20 years ago or hang on to them and hope Vista actually delivers without any further hiccups. Also wall street is much more concerned about the short term and sometimes do get it wrong, like how AMD stocks fell a couple of weeks back simply because an analyst at Goldman who held Intel stocks, claimed that the future was not green for AMD. In a nutshell hang on to those stocks and keep helping M$ with this good blog of yours.
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I have no doubt that Microsoft has enough cash to sell Xboxes at a loss forever. But when you lose money on each sale, and the product only has a 3 or so year production lifespan, that doesn’t leave you a lot of time to make enough profit on the consoles so that the entire production time shows a healthy profit. It’s not like Microsoft is selling the damned things cheap *anyway*.
I’d LOVE to see a detailed breakdown of the Home and entertainment division, to get an idea of how much worse the Xbox losses would have been without the Mac BU’s profitability helping out.
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I have no doubt that Microsoft has enough cash to sell Xboxes at a loss forever. But when you lose money on each sale, and the product only has a 3 or so year production lifespan, that doesn’t leave you a lot of time to make enough profit on the consoles so that the entire production time shows a healthy profit. It’s not like Microsoft is selling the damned things cheap *anyway*.
I’d LOVE to see a detailed breakdown of the Home and entertainment division, to get an idea of how much worse the Xbox losses would have been without the Mac BU’s profitability helping out.
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@12, actually xboxes might keep selling especially to the Xbox Modding community, as long as Microsost is willing to keep producing them. If demand remains strong which it is then I see no reason why Microsoft would not push the Xbox until at least it breaks even.
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@12, actually xboxes might keep selling especially to the Xbox Modding community, as long as Microsost is willing to keep producing them. If demand remains strong which it is then I see no reason why Microsoft would not push the Xbox until at least it breaks even.
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Microsoft (as a whole) is still a hugely profitable company. For it’s size, the kind of profits Microsoft shows every year is amazing. Yeah, some divisions are ‘carried’ by other… but that’s the way to enter new markets… especially when there is lots of money to invest.
Vista is coming up… Office 2007 is coming up… whatever anyone may have to say about these products right now, they are going to make lots of money for Microsoft for next year.
Microsoft is entering the Ad market… they will make money in that too (that’s the reason they are entering the field in the first place).
Mobile market is going to get hotter and who is going to be there providing software for a lot of devices? Yes… Microsoft again.
And the server business (not just the OS server) is doing great too.
If the company cannot invest to innovate and grow, what should it do? Shrink?
Write off Microsoft at your own peril.
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Microsoft (as a whole) is still a hugely profitable company. For it’s size, the kind of profits Microsoft shows every year is amazing. Yeah, some divisions are ‘carried’ by other… but that’s the way to enter new markets… especially when there is lots of money to invest.
Vista is coming up… Office 2007 is coming up… whatever anyone may have to say about these products right now, they are going to make lots of money for Microsoft for next year.
Microsoft is entering the Ad market… they will make money in that too (that’s the reason they are entering the field in the first place).
Mobile market is going to get hotter and who is going to be there providing software for a lot of devices? Yes… Microsoft again.
And the server business (not just the OS server) is doing great too.
If the company cannot invest to innovate and grow, what should it do? Shrink?
Write off Microsoft at your own peril.
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You know I’m a blogging number cruncher who has had to learn the hard way that there is serious value in this stuff. Hunt out the closest person to your CFO who blogs and can explain the figures in words the man in the street will understand. Anything less is committing fiscal suicide.
This has been a long time a-coming – Forbes talked about it earlier today. This is how serious it is getting IMO. Sun has just ditched Scott Mc Neally – a truly great guy whose time has passed at that company. How long before the market ditches Ballmer who has stated that he doesn’t read blogs – another truly great guy (I mean that as an money man not as a blogger.) for similar reasons?
And maybe spend some time on some of the enterprisey blogs that talk about these issues both financially and contextually from a customer perspective. People like Jason Wood, Jason Busch, Jeff Nolan, Vinnie Mirchandani, Phil Wainewright, Sadagopan and Zoli Erdos. They won’t necessarily all make sense but hopefully the conversations will inform.
I hope that’s useful and good luck. Because despite however cranky some of the ‘we hate Microsoft’ brigade may sound (I sometimes wade in on this), the reality is we all need it to be a strong and vibrant company.
If not then why have we got WAMP?
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You know I’m a blogging number cruncher who has had to learn the hard way that there is serious value in this stuff. Hunt out the closest person to your CFO who blogs and can explain the figures in words the man in the street will understand. Anything less is committing fiscal suicide.
This has been a long time a-coming – Forbes talked about it earlier today. This is how serious it is getting IMO. Sun has just ditched Scott Mc Neally – a truly great guy whose time has passed at that company. How long before the market ditches Ballmer who has stated that he doesn’t read blogs – another truly great guy (I mean that as an money man not as a blogger.) for similar reasons?
And maybe spend some time on some of the enterprisey blogs that talk about these issues both financially and contextually from a customer perspective. People like Jason Wood, Jason Busch, Jeff Nolan, Vinnie Mirchandani, Phil Wainewright, Sadagopan and Zoli Erdos. They won’t necessarily all make sense but hopefully the conversations will inform.
I hope that’s useful and good luck. Because despite however cranky some of the ‘we hate Microsoft’ brigade may sound (I sometimes wade in on this), the reality is we all need it to be a strong and vibrant company.
If not then why have we got WAMP?
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Robert,
That’s okay. If management wasn’t willing to, then you shouldn’t. I just thought that if it wasn’t a secret then some clarity would be nice.
On the Google price quote thing. I noticed the same thing. It caused one blogger at AOL’s new Microsoft stock blog to get her story wrong at first.
While there’s no legal liability, there’s certainly a question about which service to use. Yahoo! Finance was right. And you indicate that you know that. So why did you make the trade if there was this obvious problem?
Nah, your bad.
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Robert,
That’s okay. If management wasn’t willing to, then you shouldn’t. I just thought that if it wasn’t a secret then some clarity would be nice.
On the Google price quote thing. I noticed the same thing. It caused one blogger at AOL’s new Microsoft stock blog to get her story wrong at first.
While there’s no legal liability, there’s certainly a question about which service to use. Yahoo! Finance was right. And you indicate that you know that. So why did you make the trade if there was this obvious problem?
Nah, your bad.
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Forgot the internal bit so:
Note to Steve Ballmer (who doesn’t read blogs – allegedly) – Tell your chief finance people to start an internal blog where they can figure out how to communicate with one another for a start – then get them engaging with operations who in turn can communicate with customers over your extended supply and customer chain. It isn’t that difficult. Of course you run the risk of things leaking out. So what? You’ve got legal people blogging, why not finance guys? At the moment, these are far more important to you than anyone else – methinks.
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Forgot the internal bit so:
Note to Steve Ballmer (who doesn’t read blogs – allegedly) – Tell your chief finance people to start an internal blog where they can figure out how to communicate with one another for a start – then get them engaging with operations who in turn can communicate with customers over your extended supply and customer chain. It isn’t that difficult. Of course you run the risk of things leaking out. So what? You’ve got legal people blogging, why not finance guys? At the moment, these are far more important to you than anyone else – methinks.
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Dennis: unfortunately I don’t see finance people blogging anytime soon. Why? Cause there are serious disclosure laws and rules about these things. And, anything they say can dramatically affect markets.
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Dennis: unfortunately I don’t see finance people blogging anytime soon. Why? Cause there are serious disclosure laws and rules about these things. And, anything they say can dramatically affect markets.
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You want a good example of how unfocused Microsoft is?
Why the HELL are they starting up Yet Another MySpace – type service. They already make money from MySpace, it RUNS ON WINDOWS.
Holy crapslide batman, what’s the point? Microsoft wants to host a bunch of hookup sites with even WORSE HTML? THey want to put MySpace out of business? (Face it, Ballmer can’t even SAY “Coexistance” much less practice it.)
What’s the damned point beyond a great example of why ADD and infinite money are not a good combination. Someone explain the clear, concise, business reason for this.
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You want a good example of how unfocused Microsoft is?
Why the HELL are they starting up Yet Another MySpace – type service. They already make money from MySpace, it RUNS ON WINDOWS.
Holy crapslide batman, what’s the point? Microsoft wants to host a bunch of hookup sites with even WORSE HTML? THey want to put MySpace out of business? (Face it, Ballmer can’t even SAY “Coexistance” much less practice it.)
What’s the damned point beyond a great example of why ADD and infinite money are not a good combination. Someone explain the clear, concise, business reason for this.
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What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?
Personally I believe that we should not want Microsoft employees to speak at all regarding manners that they do not have control over. While some perspectives might be helpful as an investor it would only demonstrate a small portion of what goes on in the company at best.
I want transparancy in how your products work or do not work, why you missed a launch date and why you set the launch date in the first place. Basically, I want you all to be open as possible without talking about how you plan on seperating my money from my wallet. I want to know how your company and its employees can help ME do my job or live my life day to day.
Can you save me time? Can you make me more productive? Can you make me more “safe” in this world? Demonstrate this through your products and services.
I personally like the fact that Microsoft has become more open with CHannel9 and all but sometimes you guys shoot yourself in the foot by being so open about everything. Just be more open but also more right. Be more right about launch dates, what features a product will actually have, etc.
Just what I want out of any company.
My two cents.
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What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?
Personally I believe that we should not want Microsoft employees to speak at all regarding manners that they do not have control over. While some perspectives might be helpful as an investor it would only demonstrate a small portion of what goes on in the company at best.
I want transparancy in how your products work or do not work, why you missed a launch date and why you set the launch date in the first place. Basically, I want you all to be open as possible without talking about how you plan on seperating my money from my wallet. I want to know how your company and its employees can help ME do my job or live my life day to day.
Can you save me time? Can you make me more productive? Can you make me more “safe” in this world? Demonstrate this through your products and services.
I personally like the fact that Microsoft has become more open with CHannel9 and all but sometimes you guys shoot yourself in the foot by being so open about everything. Just be more open but also more right. Be more right about launch dates, what features a product will actually have, etc.
Just what I want out of any company.
My two cents.
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It’s all a company play. The company knows exactly what to say to keep the stock down. They don’t want the stock to go up. Why? If the stock goes up, the company risks losing more talent to retirement. It’ll go back up when the company has hired and built out the next era of employees to carry the torch on, without the risk of losing them to early retirement. Ballmer said one of his biggest regrets was giving out huge stock grants early on. Why? Because when the stock went up, everyone left.
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It’s all a company play. The company knows exactly what to say to keep the stock down. They don’t want the stock to go up. Why? If the stock goes up, the company risks losing more talent to retirement. It’ll go back up when the company has hired and built out the next era of employees to carry the torch on, without the risk of losing them to early retirement. Ballmer said one of his biggest regrets was giving out huge stock grants early on. Why? Because when the stock went up, everyone left.
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#7 and #9, this is #6 again. If you see Google Finance page, there is a time stamp of the quote. The disclaimer says that this time stamp could be delayed be 15-20 minutes behind. Tomorrow check this time stamp after the market. Google Finance will show it to be only a minute behind whereas all other websites show it to be 15-20 minutes behind. I gave Google Finance a benefit of doubt. So what I did was waited for twenty minutes and to see whether Google Finance puts the MSFT stock in the red. It did at 5:05 PM. The time stamp was 5:04 PM. All other financial sites were showing MSFT in red by 4:30 PM.
Now the other disclaimer that Google Finance is not responsible for any loss and it is not financial advice is fine. I am not asking that kind of responsibility.
The responsibility is not to decieve. They are showing a more recent time stamps next to their quote to deceive me. This is a materialitic lie and cheating to a consumer’s good faith. If I were paying to them, then even with the disclaimer, Google Finance is liable for their cheating.
My question is, does an advertisement supported company does not even have a good faith responsibility of providing their services honestly. Certainly their cheating did cost Yahoo Finance because I used to use it earlier, if Google were not cheating.
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#7 and #9, this is #6 again. If you see Google Finance page, there is a time stamp of the quote. The disclaimer says that this time stamp could be delayed be 15-20 minutes behind. Tomorrow check this time stamp after the market. Google Finance will show it to be only a minute behind whereas all other websites show it to be 15-20 minutes behind. I gave Google Finance a benefit of doubt. So what I did was waited for twenty minutes and to see whether Google Finance puts the MSFT stock in the red. It did at 5:05 PM. The time stamp was 5:04 PM. All other financial sites were showing MSFT in red by 4:30 PM.
Now the other disclaimer that Google Finance is not responsible for any loss and it is not financial advice is fine. I am not asking that kind of responsibility.
The responsibility is not to decieve. They are showing a more recent time stamps next to their quote to deceive me. This is a materialitic lie and cheating to a consumer’s good faith. If I were paying to them, then even with the disclaimer, Google Finance is liable for their cheating.
My question is, does an advertisement supported company does not even have a good faith responsibility of providing their services honestly. Certainly their cheating did cost Yahoo Finance because I used to use it earlier, if Google were not cheating.
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“What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?”
Ask for a symphatetic shoulder…you need it times like this
Robert, seriously don’t say nothing – we need bloggers to be transparent but not if it exposes company to sharks and lawsuits. You pay your IR guys for this kind of news.
Just go back and execute. These results are 3 years in the making as I have commented before. $ 20 b in R&D in last 3 years and lots of products in disarray…think small, think agile…but you know it already.
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“What would you like employees to tell you in situations like this?”
Ask for a symphatetic shoulder…you need it times like this
Robert, seriously don’t say nothing – we need bloggers to be transparent but not if it exposes company to sharks and lawsuits. You pay your IR guys for this kind of news.
Just go back and execute. These results are 3 years in the making as I have commented before. $ 20 b in R&D in last 3 years and lots of products in disarray…think small, think agile…but you know it already.
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Robert: hmmm…I see the problem. So same goes for CEOs? I’m pretty usre we don’t have the same konds of problem in the UK.
OK – so how’s about take it internal so the number crunchers can help the sales etc people (and vice versa) get to grips with whatever isn’t working properly in that area?
If blogging does anything, it helps develop a collegiate (collaborative) feel to the place. The Wall Street guys need something – is this a way of opening doors rather than folks being cubby-holed in their silos? Plays to your previous thoughts about hires for instance.
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Robert: hmmm…I see the problem. So same goes for CEOs? I’m pretty usre we don’t have the same konds of problem in the UK.
OK – so how’s about take it internal so the number crunchers can help the sales etc people (and vice versa) get to grips with whatever isn’t working properly in that area?
If blogging does anything, it helps develop a collegiate (collaborative) feel to the place. The Wall Street guys need something – is this a way of opening doors rather than folks being cubby-holed in their silos? Plays to your previous thoughts about hires for instance.
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I hope that extra $2.4 billion you’re planning to spend at least gains you guys some interesting stuff…
How are you going to convince 75 million people to join Wallop over MySpace?
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I hope that extra $2.4 billion you’re planning to spend at least gains you guys some interesting stuff…
How are you going to convince 75 million people to join Wallop over MySpace?
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Robert,
I thought it worthwhile to point out that the balance sheet does NOT show cost (or expenses). I assume you meant the income statement or P&L.
The balance sheet shows assets, liabilities, and stockholders equity.
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Robert,
I thought it worthwhile to point out that the balance sheet does NOT show cost (or expenses). I assume you meant the income statement or P&L.
The balance sheet shows assets, liabilities, and stockholders equity.
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As vinny says in post 24 dont say anything. Saying somthing that the FFC doenst like could be very nasty.
Though I think he ment PR normaly IR Is Industrial Relations and ime not sure that MS has any Professional IR persons š
Having worked for big company (BT) sometimes the City just decies that your not flavor of the month BT for example didnt play the Game that Voda did and print shed loads of stock to do aquisitions.
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As vinny says in post 24 dont say anything. Saying somthing that the FFC doenst like could be very nasty.
Though I think he ment PR normaly IR Is Industrial Relations and ime not sure that MS has any Professional IR persons š
Having worked for big company (BT) sometimes the City just decies that your not flavor of the month BT for example didnt play the Game that Voda did and print shed loads of stock to do aquisitions.
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“On the other hand, Xbox sales are higher than expected, and that will turn into profits in future years (the more games, and other things, sold on each Xbox brings in money that counteracts the money we’re losing on each one sold).”
Hmmm, didn’t MS loss $4B on the first-gen xbox?
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“On the other hand, Xbox sales are higher than expected, and that will turn into profits in future years (the more games, and other things, sold on each Xbox brings in money that counteracts the money we’re losing on each one sold).”
Hmmm, didn’t MS loss $4B on the first-gen xbox?
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#6 and #23: I don’t think you understand. Google (and Yahoo, MSN, etc.) provides info on an “as is” basis. That means it is your responsibility to make choices about whether or not to use it.
They don’t have an obligation “not to deceive”. Chances are, what you saw was a mistake, not an effort to trick users. Google Finance is relatively new and probably has a number of bugs that need to be worked out.
This is about *your* responsibility, not Google’s. Too many people blame “the corporations” when the real responsibility is a lot closer to home.
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#6 and #23: I don’t think you understand. Google (and Yahoo, MSN, etc.) provides info on an “as is” basis. That means it is your responsibility to make choices about whether or not to use it.
They don’t have an obligation “not to deceive”. Chances are, what you saw was a mistake, not an effort to trick users. Google Finance is relatively new and probably has a number of bugs that need to be worked out.
This is about *your* responsibility, not Google’s. Too many people blame “the corporations” when the real responsibility is a lot closer to home.
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I didn’t know MySpace was a MS-based site, so maybe that explains why Wallop is being spun off? Because I think it’s odd for MS to spin anything off, with all the acquisitions that you folks normally do.
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I didn’t know MySpace was a MS-based site, so maybe that explains why Wallop is being spun off? Because I think it’s odd for MS to spin anything off, with all the acquisitions that you folks normally do.
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“They were explicitly inexplicit, and that doesn’t give people a lot of comfort,” said analyst Charles Di Bona with Bernstein & Co.
‘Explicitly inexplicit’, the company motto, know-nothing Evangelistic bloggers notwithstanding.
The bluff until July game is not working anymore. š So great, the big news is that they are going to SPEND more to “compete in areas where not dominant”? As if that hasn’t been the strategy all along, throw money at any problem, stick it out until no market and competitors all give up.
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“They were explicitly inexplicit, and that doesn’t give people a lot of comfort,” said analyst Charles Di Bona with Bernstein & Co.
‘Explicitly inexplicit’, the company motto, know-nothing Evangelistic bloggers notwithstanding.
The bluff until July game is not working anymore. š So great, the big news is that they are going to SPEND more to “compete in areas where not dominant”? As if that hasn’t been the strategy all along, throw money at any problem, stick it out until no market and competitors all give up.
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“Turns out that selling tons of Xbox 360’s for a loss, and hiring lots of new Windows Live (er, MSN) employees, while doing something else that’ll increase costs in the future”
And let’s not forget the Vista delays…. I’m sure that factored into the loss too. š
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“Turns out that selling tons of Xbox 360’s for a loss, and hiring lots of new Windows Live (er, MSN) employees, while doing something else that’ll increase costs in the future”
And let’s not forget the Vista delays…. I’m sure that factored into the loss too. š
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There really isn’t much a person can say. Working in a top medical device company, I know all to well how much employees suffer when stock prices get hit.
Many people here have invested retirement accounts and paid to buy stock, only to watch it get hammered by the Street.
I sympathize with ya on this and hope that management will take a long look at what they do well. Working daily in a corporate office is hard enough without having to withstand your stock options going worthless.
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There really isn’t much a person can say. Working in a top medical device company, I know all to well how much employees suffer when stock prices get hit.
Many people here have invested retirement accounts and paid to buy stock, only to watch it get hammered by the Street.
I sympathize with ya on this and hope that management will take a long look at what they do well. Working daily in a corporate office is hard enough without having to withstand your stock options going worthless.
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Robert, if it makes you feel any better, here is a thank you to Microsoft for deciding to ramp up R&D spend
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/04/microsofts_rd_i.html
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Robert, if it makes you feel any better, here is a thank you to Microsoft for deciding to ramp up R&D spend
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/04/microsofts_rd_i.html
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