05.05.08
Microsoft’s Bank Balance — Exposed!
There have been skeptics who doubted our previous claims that Microsoft’s financial future seems a little rocky, despite the fact that we provided an overwhelming amount of evidence from the press. In relative economic terms, Microsoft’s strength and mythical might have both clearly declined. Enron too was once a legend in people’s minds (perception) and SCO’s bankruptcy came out of nowhere.
Remember that virtually all companies embellish information about their corporate health, Novell included. It’s the ‘norm’. We saw a bit of a prelude about a week ago when Microsoft reported a significant decline [1, 2].
One of Microsoft’s head ‘watcher’ from Seattle now has it confirmed that not only has Microsoft lost a huge amount of its liquidated assets; its bank balance is also similar to that of Apple at the moment.
Microsoft has reduced its legendary cash balance by tens of billions of dollars in recent years through a series of buybacks, dividends and acquisitions. The importance of cash was evident in the Microsoft-Yahoo saga: Had the Redmond company succeeded in the proposed $44.6 billion acquisition, it would have needed to borrow money for the first time in its history to fund the deal.
This is not exactly new, but it is yet another important reminder. The 800lb gorilla must no longer seem as scary as it used to be.
The triumph of GNU/Linux in various areas that it hasn’t already conquered and dominated (e.g. HPC, embedded space) is hopefully yet to be seen. Patience and persistence are key because Microsoft has many companies lined up against it at the moment, not just the huge wave that is Free software development. It relies on an aging legacy, a phased-out generation of software, much like Novell.
My cousin from Florida sent me the following quote a few hours ago in a completely unrelated discussion, but it applies to this post too.
“Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience.”
–Georges Louis Leclerc
The SCO trial will not end the way people expected. SCO committed suicide. It died trying… trying defeating the undebatable**, or bringing validity to a Big Lie. Even Microsoft’s anti-Linux rhetorics are running thin***. Bank balance likewise. All that’s needed now is patience. The aggressors will run out of breath, gradually. More stories like this one will continue to come. █
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** Free software is amorphous, belonging to no embodiment that is company.
*** As clearly shown in the press, even yesterday.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
DOUGman said,
May 5, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Case in point…. while setting up Ubuntu in the office. I added a Xerox Phaser to my list of printers, I did not have to install any drivers. It just worked… Nuf’ said…
D.
Chris Lees said,
May 6, 2008 at 10:05 pm
If Microsoft’s bank balance is something like Apple’s, then they are in big trouble.
Microsoft develops and “gives away” a lot of software to lock in their customers, acquires companies, etc. Recently they’ve been virtually giving away Windows to any country that threatens to move to open-source, and of course Vista is nowhere near paying for the cost of its development.
Apple, on the other hand, makes huge margins on its hardware, doesn’t acquire many companies, doesn’t file as many patents, and doesn’t fight battles on so many fronts.
Roy Schestowitz said,
May 6, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Then again, Microsoft is an Apple shareholder.