Microsoft (MSFT) / Bill Gates

[kennynah]

oh yeah... the infamous "rightsizing"....hahaha...

now we know why ballmer made some remarks about "no recovery" just a day earlier .. he was laying the grounds for his axing message the next day.... smart bald fella...

[LenaHuat]

Hi iam802, K and MM

Ya, I'm beginning to like this bald fella. Put him on my 'watch' and 'listen' list now

[kennynah]

steve baldmer

[millionairemind]

Even the laggard's profit is up 35%.

Apr 23, 2010
Microsoft net profit up 35%
SAN FRANCISCO - SOFTWARE giant Microsoft said on Thursday that its third-quarter net profit rose 35 per cent to US$4.01 billion (S$5.5 billion), slightly better than expectations.

Microsoft said revenue hit a record US$14.50 billion in the quarter which ended on March 31, up six per cent over the same period a year ago.

'Windows 7 continues to be a growth engine, but we also saw strong growth in other areas like Bing search, Xbox Live and our emerging cloud services,' Microsoft chief financial officer Peter Klein said in a statement.

Microsoft said revenue from its Windows computer operating system was up 28 per cent over a year ago, driven by strong demand for the latest version, Windows 7.

'Business customers are beginning to refresh their desktops and the momentum of Windows 7 continues to be strong,' chief operating officer Kevin Turner said. -- AFP

[iam802]

Steve keeps his job.

[kennynah]

was there a contender for the CEO post?

come to think of it...he's been at the helm now for 11 years...

[iam802]

MSFT is one smart cookie.

Let AAPL sue HTC ...and they just step in and offer HTC a chance to license some patents.

---
(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it struck a licensing deal with phone handset maker HTC Corp, under which it will get royalty payments on HTC phones running Google Inc's Android operating system

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63R0WX20100428

[millionairemind]

June 18, 2010, 8.23 am (Singapore time)

Facebook profitable, '09 revenue neared US$800m

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook's financial performance is stronger than previously believed, as the Internet social network's explosive growth in users and advertisers boosted 2009 revenue to as much as US$800 million, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

The company also earned a solid net profit, in the tens of millions of dollars last year, one of the sources said.

That growth in profit and revenue underscores how Facebook is increasingly making money off its six-year-old service, which now ranks as the world's No 1 Internet social network with nearly half a billion users.

Those results were significantly higher than the figures Facebook had guided towards last year as well as estimates in various analyst and media reports, which have generally pegged the company's 2009 revenue at between US$550 million and US$700 million.

Both sources said revenue was in the US$700 million to US$800 million range, which the first source said was more than double the 2008 level.

Facebook declined to comment. -- REUTERS

[iam802]

$1B invested.

500 units sold

48 days later

KIN is DEAD.

--------------------------------
What do you expect the company to do when face with the above challenge?

Fire more people.

-------------------------------
Microsoft job cuts in hundreds, scattered across the company

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/0 ... mpany.html

[iam802]

Microsoft To Pay More Than Half A Billion Dollars To Jump-Start Windows Phone 7

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/26/micros ... s-phone-7/

...

The company could spend a half-billion dollars or more in marketing costs and payments to developers and handset manufacturers to subsidize the expense of building phones and apps, so that the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem is well-seeded at launch.

Jonathan Goldberg, a telecommunications analyst at Deutsche Bank, estimates that Microsoft will spend $400 million on marketing alone for the Windows Phone 7 launch. That doesn’t include the millions it has already committed to pay for “non-recurring engineering” costs that help offset development costs for handset manufacturers.

....

Notes:
- Pretty much a lost decade for MSFT
- Catch up game here with AAPL, GOOG
- I see them in the same position as Nokia, RIMM