tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post109842574059331919..comments2024-03-29T04:53:26.072-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Microsoft's Financial HorizonWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-74895465030962944272007-06-18T23:49:00.000-07:002007-06-18T23:49:00.000-07:00stockmarketstudio.com or optonsXpress.com charts a...stockmarketstudio.com or optonsXpress.com charts allow you to compare up to 5 symbols.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1125990195156855132005-09-06T00:03:00.000-07:002005-09-06T00:03:00.000-07:00MSFT is rather flat looking, especially in the vs ...MSFT is rather flat looking, especially in the vs GOOG chart. The current look in Sept 05 has a big bubble in it for GOOG while MSFT just keeps going merrily on.martyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17533478185551675997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098904206638785722004-10-27T12:10:00.000-07:002004-10-27T12:10:00.000-07:00Thought experiment for the day. First, set aside ...Thought experiment for the day. First, set aside Apple for a minute. OK, nice happy all-Windows universe. Now, have a company like Creative Labs develop a product that looks exactly like iPod and iTMS, and have it become a huge hit in the Windows space. H-P starts bundling it on their PC's and resells the Creative player in big numbers. Creative stock skyrockets.<br /><br />In this alternate universe, would MSFT feel the urge to compete against Creative for this product sector? After all it's just one of Microsoft's many developers making a great Windows product and making Windows better.<br /><br />It often seems to me that whenever something becomes a big deal in the business, MSFT wants to either control it or replace it. Is that an unfair assessment? Especially if one company starts making big profits and getting some power behind them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098744539563628002004-10-25T15:48:00.000-07:002004-10-25T15:48:00.000-07:00Gosh, that stock chart looks an awful lot like...a...Gosh, that stock chart looks an awful lot like...a utility! A massive cash-generating monopoly that pays regular dividends. The financial community's made the adjustment. Will Microsoft? <br /><br />Or will Microsoft prove Wall Street wrong with a raging hot new business like...Xbox? Paid search? Media Center PCs? <br /><br />That said, Google's P/E ratio is totally ridiculous. And what's Apple going to do once everybody moves on from the iPod--become a full-blown consumer electronics company?MattyDreadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07672551550980038892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098477766884499162004-10-22T13:42:00.000-07:002004-10-22T13:42:00.000-07:00'All these technical improvements we meaningfully ...'All these technical improvements we meaningfully expound upon might make your everyday IT guy's nipples harden (mmm, USB-drive lock-out), but the analysts and consumers just hear ya-da-geekity-geek-not-worth-my-money-bing.'<br /><br />or, as Danny O'Brien once put it: 'Microsoft stuff continues to have its head stuck right up the ass of corporate America. One of my big bones with MS stuff is that it always makes me feel like I'm eating out of the trash bins outside a cubicle farm. All of their software is designed to help busy executives plan their lives. Everyone I know uses it to try and write birthday cards and chat with their friends.'mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04636275871897442051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098462195373786672004-10-22T09:23:00.000-07:002004-10-22T09:23:00.000-07:00The biggest driver in the drop in unearned revenue...The biggest driver in the drop in unearned revenue isn't the WIndows roamap--it's Office. Corporations get a new copy of Windows every time they buy a new PC (never mind that in many cases they re-image the machine to an older version).<br /><br />But in the past, those companies have signed multi-year agreements for Office and they now look at what was delivered in Office 2003 and look ahead 3 years and just aren't seeing anything compelling.<br /><br />They also look at the track record of delivering software within 3 years. Anyone who bought Software Assurance on SQL in 2001 is going to get stiffed because Microsoft won't be delivering an upgrade within the three year term.<br /><br />I remember Ballmer getting up in front of customers and saying "three years is too far out for us to predict exactly what our software will look like." But it's not too far out to charge them for it? WTF?!?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098458592319707662004-10-22T08:23:00.000-07:002004-10-22T08:23:00.000-07:00If you like charts, check out my former employer s...If you like charts, check out my former employer <A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fstockcharts.com%2Fdef%2Fservlet%2FSC.web%3Fc%3Dmsft">stockcharts.com</A>!<br /><br /><A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anitarowland.com%2F">Anita Rowland</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098451762035619652004-10-22T06:29:00.000-07:002004-10-22T06:29:00.000-07:00I'm not sure the dot-com/GOOG comparison is comple...I'm not sure the dot-com/GOOG comparison is completely accurate, because one key difference is GOOG is making a profit. Not only that but Google's profit margins are huge. As I've explained before, I think Google has <A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.articulatebabble.org%2Farchives%2F2004%2F09%2F05T143028.php">a very real long-term competitive advantage</A> with its technology base, but more importantly, with its overall philosophy toward web applications. (Side note: I just discovered that typing in a stock symbol in Google gives you the Yahoo! Finance link for that stock as the first hit. That makes my life easier. No more hunting around Yahoo!'s site for the "finance" link.)<br /><br />Let's look at Google Desktop Search for a second -- I find two things interesting about it. One -- assuming they can figure out the privacy/security concerns, Google has gotten itself yet another route that it could push ads down. When I wrote this comment, I had to actually launch desktop search to check that they haven't yet put ads in there -- they haven't. But if they can figure out a way to do it that doesn't involve sending my data to them, I wouldn't care if they did. Think about it -- advertising supported software that <I>isn't</I> annoying. <br /><br />I think Google desktop search also says more about Microsoft than it says about Google. How long has Microsoft been trying to put search functionality that doesn't suck in the operating system, and how long have they failed? It's ridiculous -- I remember them talking about it back in my intern days about 8 or 9 years ago. I think Google may have just put it out there to underscore that the conventional wisdom that Microsoft just needs to "get some search technology" and it will crush Google is wrong. Search technology is only part of it -- Microsoft needs to <I>deeply understand</I> web applications in order to compete with Google. It's a philosophy thing.<br /><br />Compare something like WinFS vs Google Search. WinFS is something only a computer scientist could love -- object oriented file system! The file system is a database! Complexity! <br /><br />Meanwhile, the consumer doesn't really care about that! He just wants to search his hard drive fast. Google implemented the simplest possible system that would work, and to boot, it uses the same interface as normal Google, and is totally integrated. No talking dogs or paperclips or other crap that I don't want to deal with -- no opening files in some other application just to see what the hell they are. <br /><br />Microsoft could have done this. They easily have the technical capacity to do so. This is what I mean when I say it is a philosophy thing -- I don't think Microsoft <I>would</I> have done something this simple. To them, adding desktop search means adding something like WinFS -- something most users <I>don't care about</I>, no matter how computer sciencey it is. <br /><br />-<A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.articulatebabble.org">vince</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098444179588095492004-10-22T04:22:00.000-07:002004-10-22T04:22:00.000-07:00Why not look at another chart:
http://ichart.fina...Why not look at another chart:<br /><br />http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/z?s=MSFT&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=AAPLAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1098436447496813992004-10-22T02:14:00.000-07:002004-10-22T02:14:00.000-07:00GOOG is trading like a dot bomb stock, I don't thi...GOOG is trading like a dot bomb stock, I don't think it is fair to compare MSFT against it. I do agree though that if you compare MSFT against most tech stocks both dotcomms (Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Expedia) or more traditional companies (IBM, DELL, HPQ, RHAT) we aren't doing that impressively. <br /><br />-- DareAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com