Why Microsoft Should Fret
,----[ Quote ]
| But what if at stake in the battle isn't just Microsoft's position in selling
| ads, but the very survival of its core software business? Microsoft would
| never admit that so much is on the line.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120277476716860601.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
Stalking the Internet Operating System
,----[ Quote ]
| Competing with Android, Google’s Linux-based, open operating system for
| mobile devices, has become another Microsoft priority. The opportunity to
| sell ads and deliver applications on mobile devices will grow exponentially,
| and Google is poised to move into the market in a big way, going up against
| not just Microsoft but also behemoths like Nokia.
`----
http://seekingalpha.com/article/64362-stalking-the-internet-operating-system?source=yahoo
The Android demo (on a prototype) impressed those who saw it.
Related:
Microsoft to take case to Yahoo shareholders: report
,----[ Quote ]
| The board believes Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is trying to take advantage
| of some recent weakness in Yahoo's share price in order to "steal" the
| company, the report said.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsoft-take-case-yahoo-shareholders/story.aspx?guid=%7B7F963245%2D5B26%2D4A77%2D8D18%2D4D2122A9D4AE%7D&siteid=yhoof
http://tinyurl.com/3dpl6n
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is threatening to launch a boardroom coup at Yahoo! within six
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| weeks if the internet search engine fails to accept its $45 billion (£23
| billion) hostile takeover proposal or start serious merger talks, The Times
| has learned.
`----
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3300964.ece?EMC-Bltn=LOXCF1
Options Before Microsoft: Upping Bid; Tender Offer; Hostile Takeover; Pressure
Tactics
,----[ Quote ]
| Hostile board overthrow: This would be the most contentious, and Microsoft
| has indicated its willingness to go through with this if need be: it could
| seek to oust Yahoo's board at its next election; it would have until March 13
| to nominate a new slate of directors. Yahoo has taken "poison pill"
| provisions, and Microsoft have to oust the board to get past these
| provisions.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/paidcontent/080209/1_319741_id.html?.v=1
Microsoft Replies To Yahoo Rejection
,----[ Quote ]
| The response to Yahoo's "no thanks" to a $44.6 billion acquisition held the
| not-so-subtle threat of a more aggressive takeover action by Microsoft.
|
| [...]
|
| "The Yahoo response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial
| merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the
| right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are
| provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal,"
| Microsoft said in their statement.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/02/11/microsoft-replies-to-yahoo-rejection
Microsoft rejects Yahoo! rejection
,----[ Quote ]
| Steve Ballmer still wants to swallow Jerry Yang's company.
`----
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/02/11/microsoft_still_wants_yahoo/
Microsoft and the American way
,----[ Quote ]
| An interesting side-note on the potential Yahoo-Microsoft deal: Microsoft has
| only $17B in cash/liquid reserves, but has bid $44.6B for Yahoo.
`----
http://warpedvisions.org/2008/02/03/microsoft-and-the-american-way/
Was Vista a disaster for Microsoft?
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently Microsoft posted their profits for 2007. Despite Vista being one of
| the worst disasters to hit the computer systems markets since Windows ME,
| Microsoft seemed to come out way ahead... or did they?
|
| Profits don't always tell the full story about how a company performs, and
| I'm not talking about Enron.
`----
http://zerias.blogspot.com/2008/01/was-vista-disaster-for-microsoft.html
Dueling Fools: Microsoft Bear
,----[ Quote ]
| You don't need to watch the 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' commercials to see that
| Microsoft is taking a beating. You see it in the company's financials where
| its online unit, incredibly, is operating at a loss; overheating Xbox 360
| consoles find the company taking a huge warranty hit for a system losing
| market share to the Wii; and the upgrade wave of its flagship operating
| system has been more of a ripple than a tsunami. That last point is
| important. This was supposed to be Microsoft's final feast, the major last
| hurrah for its Windows Vista operating entry and its Office 2007 suite of
| applications before the inevitable embrace of cheaper open source operating
| systems and Web-based apps... In fact, even Microsoft will tell you that its
| fortunes peaked several months ago.
`----
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2008/01/23/microsoft-bear-argument.aspx
A Dozen Stocks For '07
,----[ Quote ]
| Millen also thinks $36 billion in planned share buybacks
| will help the stock.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/05/stocks-markets-investing-pf-ii-cz_ag_1205stockpicks.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/yjzfbo
Microsoft counts on Vista to recharge stagnant stock
,----[ Quote ]
| There was a time in the 1990s when shares of Microsoft stock seemed to
| double every couple of years. 1996: college for the kids. 1998: a place
| on Whidbey. 1999: early retirement.
|
| Times have changed.
`----
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003437957_vista19.html
Commentary: Microsoft needs more than just buybacks to lift its shares
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft shares, which have been dormant for the last few years,
| have been looking up over the last couple months. The Dow industrials
| component has gained about 20% since hitting a 4-year low of $21.46 o
| June 13.
|
| To help move things along, Microsoft not only launched a $40 billion
| stock repurchase program that lasts through 2011, the company also said
| its previously announced 4-year, $30 billion stock buyback program was
| completed in just 2 years.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B685EFB89%2D5791%2D4E8B%2DAD6A%2D9688F5B6012A%7D&source=blq%2Fyhoo&dist=yhoo&siteid=yhoo
Software Notebook: Microsoft's cash pile isn't what it used to be
,----[ Quote ]
| But Microsoft has taken a series of steps to reduce its cash
| balance. Specifically, by Microsoft's count, the company has
| paid out nearly $100 billion through dividends and repurchasing
| its own stock in the past five years.
`----
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/309852_software02.html
Microsoft Hides Its Mobile and Business Apps Divisions
,----[ Quote ]
| The company is folding its two worst-performing divisions -- Microsoft
| Business Solutions (its business applications unit) and its Mobile and
| Embedded units -- into the Microsoft Business Division and Microsoft Home
| and Entertainment units, respectively.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1990243,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
How Much is Too Much?
,----[ Summary ]
| Microsoft says it will stick with Xbox. But with years of heavy losses
| behind it, the pressure's on for the gaming division to make good
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/oct2006/id20061013_283856.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
http://tinyurl.com/yxdr4j
Microsoft stoic despite massive losses
,----[ Quote ]
| If you were to judge by the PR rhetoric, you'd think the 360 was
| an unstoppable commercial juggernaut. As usual though, PR lies.
`----
http://www.gamerscan.com/articles/06/10/09/microsofts.massive.losses/
The Secret Failures of Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| There is no choice involved; even most Linux users are forced to pay for a
| Microsoft license in order to obtain a brand name PC.
|
| [...]
|
| They are bound to an oath to swear allegiance to Windows XP Professional,
| and must never mention Linux and Windows in the same breath. If they step
| out of line in any way, Microsoft dramatically raises their OEM licensing
| fees and sends them to indoctrination camp, where they face chairs being
| hurled at them by angry monkeys.
|
| [...]
|
| Why do Windows enthusiasts exibit much hostility to an obvious fact?
| Because if they admit that 80% of the company's revenues come entirely
| from an OEM tax, and not from any choice on the part of consumers...
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft's decade of investments in WinCE and Windows Mobile
| Smartphones have only barely matched the market share of Palm, which
| itself is a run down company out of ideas. Microsoft couldn't
| out-maneuver the incompetent Palm within a decade of trying; now both
| are ineffectually fighting over the dying PDA industry while Linux and
| Symbian slaughter them in the smartphone arena:
|
| Symbian 75%; Linux 14%; Microsoft 5%; Palm 5%.
|
| [...]
|
| (many more failures listed)
`----
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/2E6D9BB2-FE1B-4556-8389-67BD581FBCCC.html
Wis. Bill to Require Tax Loophole Data
,----[ Quote ]
| Wisconsin Bill Would Require More Reporting on Tax Loopholes
|
| [...]
|
| A message left with Microsoft was not immediately returned.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071219/wi_corporate_taxes.html?.v=4
Ecuador Tax Agency Closes Microsoft Branch Offices For 7 Days
,----[ Quote ]
| "We have twice requested balances, payment reports and complete tax
| information, but the company hasn't given it to us, so in accordance with our
| laws we have proceeded with the closure," the SRI official in charge of the
| proceeding said.
`----
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200710041610DOWJONESDJONLINE000810_FORTUNE5.htm
Microsoft Office raid in Hungary
,----[ Quote ]
| "Such behavior could lead to the exclusion of competitive products from
| the market and violate European Union rules, according to the authority
| known as the GVH."
`----
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/26/ap3957835.html
Microsoft's past stock options practice poses questions
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft in 1999 announced that it would end a policy of awarding
| options at monthly lows and said it would take a $217 million charge,
| though many details of that discontinued practice haven't been widely
| known, The Wall Street Journal said Friday.
|
| Those details raise questions about how Microsoft began the practice,
| what prompted the company to end it and whether the way the options
| were dated--at 30-day lows the month after they were
| granted--influenced other companies, it said.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6084617.html
Microsoft's Bach sold more stock before Xbox news
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. executive Robbie Bach sold $3 million more in company stock
| during the period leading up to an announcement about a costly flaw in its
| Xbox video game console than previously reported, according to a filing
| Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsofts-bach-sold-additional-stock/story.aspx?guid=%7BBECA3A50-EF33-4161-A111-A43BDC8B0462%7D&siteid=yhoof
|
|
