More Videos
- 3D's Tipping Point and Your Living Room
- Silicon Valley and Hollywood Now Fast Friends
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- Dell Has Some Explaining to Do
- Dell May Start to Show Some Promise
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Amended Berkshire Hathaway Filing Indicates No Secret Stock Stakes at End of Q3
- Citi Mortgage Reveals What Treasury Won't
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- Wednesday's Economic News Crunch Could Tilt Markets
- Japan Export Rebound Eases Fear of New Recession
- Australia Wheat Exporters Face Challenges: GrainCorp
- China Shipbuilding to Launch $937 Million China IPO
- Confessions of a Black Friday Shopper
- Novartis 'Cells' Its Flu Vaccine Technology
- Citi Mortgage Reveals What Treasury Won't
- S&P to Hit 1,200 by Year-End: Chief Investor
- Amended Berkshire Hathaway Filing Indicates No Secret Stock Stakes at End of Q3
- Facebook's Biggest-Ever Holiday Shopping Season
- Facebook's New Dual Class Structure - Slow Steps to an IPO
- 5 Big Bank Stocks Investors Should Consider: Strategists
- Gambling Drunk, Texting to Live And America's On Sale - Your Emails
- Nov. 24: Unusual Volume Leaders
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- Wednesday's Economic News Crunch Could Tilt Markets
- Call Me Crazy: Confessions of a Black Friday Shopper
- US Firms Hit by Payroll Taxes at Exactly the Wrong Time
- Citi Mortgage Reveals Something the US Treasury Won't
- Fed Sanguine About US Recovery, Worried on Jobs
- Amended Berkshire Filing Reveals No 'Secret' Holdings
- In Time for Holidays: More Gloom and Doom on Economy
- Holiday Guide to This Season's Smartphones
- Market Pros Reveal Top Black Friday Trades
RSS FEED
Tech Check
Text Size 
 |
In last week's earnings report, Microsoft's online business unit stuck out like a sore thumb.
With so much attention, and so much pressure on this company to stake its claim on the web, the unit did a paltry $850 million and lost a staggering $455 million in the process.
Kevin Johnson, the president of the division, suddenly and surprisingly resigned late Wednesday, taking over Juniper Networks, and leaving Microsoft's [MSFT
Loading...
()
]online business in more disarray than it was already in. If anything points to just how important a lock-up is with Yahoo, it's last week's Microsoft's earnings, and KJ's departure last night.
And here in Redmond, Washington, at Microsoft's global headquarters, the Johnson news is top of mind. Microsoft is preparing to meet with Wall Street at the company's Financial Analyst Meeting. Now, Microsoft will be forced to deviate--in a serious way--from its prepared agenda.
Johnson was widely seen as a potential heir apparent to CEO Steve Ballmer, who isn't going anywhere any time soon. The writing was on the wall, and Johnson took the hint.
That leaves Ballmer now to focus on a division he probably didn't want to focus on above and beyond the normal questions surrounding the Yahoo saga. Which is even more uncomfortable-ness for a CEO who can't really afford much more.
Consider the memo that Ballmer sent to his troops this morning, detailing his priorities, mapping out where Microsoft goes from here. There's the typical rhetoric surrounding competition with Google, Ballmer's views on Johnson's departure. But the part that jumped out at me was the attention paid to Apple.
Ballmer points out that Microsoft outsells Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
]30 to 1, but elevates the competition to a new level. He writes: "In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences."
It's an interesting take on Microsoft's position in the marketplace as it relates to Apple. Microsoft is indeed losing marketshare to Apple (2.5 million Macs a quarter start to add up!) because of all the well-documented problems and challenges with Windows Vista. But rather than focus on Vista's shortcomings, Ballmer spotlights the strengths of the Mac.
Bottomline: Microsoft runs the risk of being dead money for awhile, unless Ballmer can come up with something big, and exciting. And not just a deal for Yahoo.[YHOO
Loading...
()
] Shares have moved nowhere since he's been CEO. With earnings last week, and a squishy outlook, there's no indication that they're going anywhere anytime soon.
That's the backdrop against which Ballmer and team will address analysts today. Not a bad news story to tell, not a good news story to tell. And hardly "just right" either.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes