4 ms·

One word: Idiots. Seriously, those investors are morons. MS has never been a a company that fits the adjective: "lean". MS is practically a post-secondary i

by beloch 13y ago

One word: Idiots. Seriously, those investors are morons. MS has never been a a company that fits the adjective: "lean". MS is practically a post-secondary institution unto itself! MS' far-reaching speculative research is the stuff of legend, and far too infrequently translated into the commercial sphere. Anyone who thinks they should narrow their focus and ignore more of the fruits of their labor instead of less is an idiot.

higherpurpose 13y ago
Microsoft has never made a profit with Xbox. In fact, they've only lost billions of dollars on it, and the chance to recover them isactually smaller than it was for Xbox 360, not just because I think Sony has a stronger showing this time around (and at a lower price to boot), but because I don't think the new consoles have a life bigger than 5 years in them.
- uvTwitch 13y ago
  This is false, they broke even midway through the 360's lifespan and are now turning a profit both on it and the xbone.
jfoster 13y ago
Well, not necessarily idiots. I'm sure they understand the longer term value of those brands and products to Microsoft. Investors are not necessarily in it for the long-term, though. They might buy a substantial stake, pressure the CEO into cutting valuable (but currently loss-making) divisions, and be looking to sell that stake after a couple of really strong-looking quarters. None of that is good for Microsoft, but the investors are potentially behaving quite rationally. (if a bit destructively...)
- Joeri 13y ago
  This is the thing that is often glossed over when discussing what investors want out of a company. The primary goal of an investment is to provide a large return in a short timeframe, regardless of what happens after cashing out. Burning up a company's future to inflate short-term profits can be a perfectly fine strategy for an investor. You could argue that the last people who should have a say in how a company runs its affairs are the investors, because they are the most likely to make decisions that are bad for the company.
speeder 13y ago
More or less... Microsoft started as business software company, then switched to be a OS company, when this happened, their dev software divisions for example were assigned to support Windows, not develop on their own. After Bill Gates left, that Ballmer tried to do several things at the same time, resulting specially into a Windows division detached from everything else, MS stopped making good games for windows, stopped making tools specially geared to windows (tools obviously still work, and depend on windows, but Visual Studio team is not a "windows API" team anymore, and a team on its own, with its own profits and vision), and so on. Then they alienated windows costumers with a insistence in driver changes and creating shitty drivers (like... Xinput, instead of using the still much better Direct Input). And the destruction of some of their most popular services (ie: MSN Messenger, in Brazil people used solely the MSN Messenger to communicate, and mostly on windows, MS killed it in favour of Skype, and shot themselves in the foot HARD, because Skype is crap, and so people use other stuff) Then they alienated Xbox costumers with the shitty Xbox one (less power than PS4, more expensive, and their headless chicken policy decision making). They don't have a choice now, the only stuff that they are STILL making right is the business software side, everything else (costumer facing windows, xbox, mobile, games, etc...) became a sort of trainwreck. Going "lean" on the business side, and later rebuilding the other side is possible, but trying to fix everything at once I think is much harder.
- nly 13y ago
  > MS killed it [MSN Messenger] in favour of Skype The fact that they turned the product in to horrific ad-riddled bloatware killed MSN Messenger. Facebook chat and instant messaging in mobile, where MS may as well not exist, twisted the knife.
  - speeder 13y ago
    Still, the MSN Messenger client (specially in Brazil, where many people still used Windows XP, and thus by default had to use older clients with less ads) was still much leaner than Skype I am actually considering uninstalling Skype until I need it again for a job or something, because it makes the boot process MUCH slower, and I don't even log on it ever (I just wait it to launch, and then close it again)

by beloch 13y ago

higherpurpose 13y ago

Microsoft has never made a profit with Xbox. In fact, they've only lost billions of dollars on it, and the chance to recover them isactually smaller than it was for Xbox 360, not just because I think Sony has a stronger showing this time around (and at a lower price to boot), but because I don't think the new consoles have a life bigger than 5 years in them.

uvTwitch 13y ago
This is false, they broke even midway through the 360's lifespan and are now turning a profit both on it and the xbone.

jfoster 13y ago

Well, not necessarily idiots. I'm sure they understand the longer term value of those brands and products to Microsoft. Investors are not necessarily in it for the long-term, though. They might buy a substantial stake, pressure the CEO into cutting valuable (but currently loss-making) divisions, and be looking to sell that stake after a couple of really strong-looking quarters. None of that is good for Microsoft, but the investors are potentially behaving quite rationally. (if a bit destructively...)

Joeri 13y ago
This is the thing that is often glossed over when discussing what investors want out of a company. The primary goal of an investment is to provide a large return in a short timeframe, regardless of what happens after cashing out. Burning up a company's future to inflate short-term profits can be a perfectly fine strategy for an investor. You could argue that the last people who should have a say in how a company runs its affairs are the investors, because they are the most likely to make decisions that are bad for the company.

speeder 13y ago

More or less... Microsoft started as business software company, then switched to be a OS company, when this happened, their dev software divisions for example were assigned to support Windows, not develop on their own. After Bill Gates left, that Ballmer tried to do several things at the same time, resulting specially into a Windows division detached from everything else, MS stopped making good games for windows, stopped making tools specially geared to windows (tools obviously still work, and depend on windows, but Visual Studio team is not a "windows API" team anymore, and a team on its own, with its own profits and vision), and so on. Then they alienated windows costumers with a insistence in driver changes and creating shitty drivers (like... Xinput, instead of using the still much better Direct Input). And the destruction of some of their most popular services (ie: MSN Messenger, in Brazil people used solely the MSN Messenger to communicate, and mostly on windows, MS killed it in favour of Skype, and shot themselves in the foot HARD, because Skype is crap, and so people use other stuff) Then they alienated Xbox costumers with the shitty Xbox one (less power than PS4, more expensive, and their headless chicken policy decision making). They don't have a choice now, the only stuff that they are STILL making right is the business software side, everything else (costumer facing windows, xbox, mobile, games, etc...) became a sort of trainwreck. Going "lean" on the business side, and later rebuilding the other side is possible, but trying to fix everything at once I think is much harder.

nly 13y ago
> MS killed it [MSN Messenger] in favour of Skype The fact that they turned the product in to horrific ad-riddled bloatware killed MSN Messenger. Facebook chat and instant messaging in mobile, where MS may as well not exist, twisted the knife.
- speeder 13y ago
  Still, the MSN Messenger client (specially in Brazil, where many people still used Windows XP, and thus by default had to use older clients with less ads) was still much leaner than Skype I am actually considering uninstalling Skype until I need it again for a job or something, because it makes the boot process MUCH slower, and I don't even log on it ever (I just wait it to launch, and then close it again)