> "To the extent the open source model gains increasing market acceptance, > sales of the company's products may decline, the company may have to reduce > the prices it charges for its products, and revenues and operating margins > may consequently decline," it said.
The threat is threefold: a) Lower volumes b) Lower prices c) Higher cost per sale Now - I'm not in charge of Microsoft - that's Steve "take every one of their ideas and make them our ideas" Ballmer's job. But I'd suggest the next move has to be a radical review of Microsoft's loss-making businesses (that's about everything apart from core OSes and suites) and some pruning. The xBox loss just doubled to $348 million, for instance. Business Solutions (Great Plains, bCentral and Navision) more than doubled its losses from $41 million to $93 million. MSN and CE/Mobility also make losses. Server OS contribution isn't that amazing - the company is held up by client software. To understand how sensitive Mickeysoft might be to any serious turbulence in its cashflows, read http://www.billparish.com/msftfraudfacts.html - it's not been updated for a while, but you can follow the arguments in the public filings for yourself. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.com +44 7785 302 803 +49 173 6242039
