5 ms·

MS's strategy hasn't produced a noticeable return on investment over the past decade. Argue with the business logic all you want, but all logic supports a theor

MS's strategy hasn't produced a noticeable return on investment over the past decade. Argue with the business logic all you want, but all logic supports a theory that MS should be split up into various businesses. The big problem at MS seems to be an unwillingness to cannibalize existing products in favor of new ones. This has led to new products only when its too late. Microsoft had a virtual insurmountable lead in phones, and it took Apple and Google creating revolutionary devices for MS to come up with a decent offering. I own MS stock, and I have seen it pretty much stagnate. The company had tremendous potential. It is mature in its space, but its ever-looming shadow in its dominant space (windows) has prevented it from nurturing new products. Most of it's revenue generation comes from products developed in the early 1990's. It's track record over the past 15 years for new products is terrible (with the exception of the Xbox).

ghshephard 15y ago
If you own MS Stock then you've had dividends, quarter after quarter. That "Stagnating" stock you talk of is as much a reflection of the dividends as it is anything else. How is it that everyone forgets that Microsoft has continued to be a massively profitable enterprise for the last 10+ years, and continues to dominate in the Desktop OS and Office Productive suite space in the same time period. Nobody even _tries_ to challenge Microsoft in those two sectors, they are so dominant. Plus, they've seen some good traction in the Game-Console environment as well. With all that said - I actually agree with you in principle, it would be nice if someone just said "We have two versions of Microsoft Windows, Professional and Home" - and call it a day. The seven versions result lots of angst for small IT managers visiting CDW - this thread, 2 years laters, (and freehunter's _excellent_ description) is the first time I've ever really understood the difference between all the versions. (BTW Freehunter - if you aren't already in it, you've got a great future in product management - great and succinct product descriptions)
- freehunter 15y ago
  Thanks for the glowing recommendation. I'm quite happily employed in Information Security where I often have to give reports to people who likely aren't going to understand the exact magnitude of the risk. Communication is huge, and I'm sad to say I do have a patience problem which became evident the longer this thread continued.

ghshephard 15y ago

If you own MS Stock then you've had dividends, quarter after quarter. That "Stagnating" stock you talk of is as much a reflection of the dividends as it is anything else. How is it that everyone forgets that Microsoft has continued to be a massively profitable enterprise for the last 10+ years, and continues to dominate in the Desktop OS and Office Productive suite space in the same time period. Nobody even _tries_ to challenge Microsoft in those two sectors, they are so dominant. Plus, they've seen some good traction in the Game-Console environment as well. With all that said - I actually agree with you in principle, it would be nice if someone just said "We have two versions of Microsoft Windows, Professional and Home" - and call it a day. The seven versions result lots of angst for small IT managers visiting CDW - this thread, 2 years laters, (and freehunter's _excellent_ description) is the first time I've ever really understood the difference between all the versions. (BTW Freehunter - if you aren't already in it, you've got a great future in product management - great and succinct product descriptions)

freehunter 15y ago
Thanks for the glowing recommendation. I'm quite happily employed in Information Security where I often have to give reports to people who likely aren't going to understand the exact magnitude of the risk. Communication is huge, and I'm sad to say I do have a patience problem which became evident the longer this thread continued.