09.20.09
Microsoft Profit is Down Sharply, But Ballmer Profit is Up
Steve Ballmer in Windows 1.0 advertisement
Summary: As people lose their jobs at Microsoft, the CEO takes a pay rise
MICROSOFT is trying to hide its sharp decline after its profit had fallen by about a third for two consecutive quarters. A lot of Microsoft’s top seniors get rid of their Microsoft shares ahead of the release which may be Microsoft's last hope (Vista 7) and even a Microsoft shareholder cannot help wondering why this happens. He writes:
In recently criticizing Yahoo!’s (YHOO) insiders for dumping $233mm in stock over the last 2 years, when they’ve only bought $103k in shares, I would be remiss if I also didn’t call out 2 other executives for big share dumps last week:
1. Craig Mundie, head of research and strategy for Microsoft (MSFT). Craig decided to sell stock worth $1.7mm recently. Craig has resided over Microsoft’s R&D efforts for the last few years. This group eats up nearly $10 billion annually of Microsoft’s free cash flow. It is the group Microsoft looks for to compete in mobile computing or other areas, rather than buying a leading company such as, say, Research In Motion (RIMM). The R&D group has eaten up about $60 billion of Microsoft’s cash in the last 10 years with not much to show for it. This latest share dump is very disappointing to me as a MSFT shareholder, especially given his group’s performance.
This morning we shed light on the fact that many of Microsoft's products/units are not profitable; they operate at a considerable loss, still. Microsoft is already borrowing money and additional, unannounced layoffs carry on silently.
“Microsoft is already borrowing money and additional, unannounced layoffs carry on silently.”It is not so gloomy at the Ballmer household, though. While Microsoft’s profits dive about 30%, Steve Ballmer sees his wage increasing by 4%. It’s the same with Novell's CEO, Ron Hovsepian, who enjoys massive bonuses. Jessica Mintz at AP added to the second line of her report: “Microsoft CEO Ballmer gets salary bump at start of fiscal 2009, a year in which profit sinks”
Microsoft’s staff is annoyed by Ballmer's behaviour (ignoring the hardships) and Microsoft is now issuing a timely press release to give shareholders the illusion that they are in charge. Many investors are very angry at Ballmer; they want him out. █
“There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks that it is absurd. I would include our stock in that category. It is bad for the long-term worth of the economy.”
–Steve Ballmer
