Summary: A truly mystifying response/spin from Microsoft claims that the company bought 15 companies in the past year (but none of those companies can be named, let alone identified)

"Microsoft Hasn't Acquired Any Companies This Year" screamed this headline from Business Insider a few days ago. A lot of damage control soon came from the Microsoft boosters, who could not handle the embarrassing fact about the failure of Microsoft. We wrote about evidence of it and also remarked on the management exodus, layoffs, deaths of many products, Microsoft's growing debt, and several other indicators which supported a "do not acquire" policy. Microsoft is just busy extorting its competitors right now, by threatening and sometimes suing them (the latest victim is Motorola). Shades of SCO.

Here is an undisputed fact: Not a single announcement from Microsoft this year talks about an acquisition by Microsoft; Nevertheless, Microsoft has 'injected' an update that's hardly believable at all into the press, claiming to have just bought 15 companies it cannot name.

“[I]n an age of blogs, such things cannot be kept secret, especially if 15 companies are involved.”David Sugar from GNU Telephony showed us the spin earlier today in IRC and in the site's comments. Without naming a single company Microsoft claims to have silently acquired 15 companies in this past year. Things just don't add up.

Citing the Microsoft booster Joseph Tartakoff and the Microsoft-sponsored TechFlash, Business Insider says that: "One theory, which makes sense to us, from Joesph Tartakoff at paidContent: Microsoft doesn't want investors to think it's just freely spending money. The company is trying to be conservative." As pointed out in IRC, in an age of blogs, such things cannot be kept secret, especially if 15 companies are involved.

Watch what actually happened in TechFlash. Microsoft contacted the site to change the article, which is typical:

[Posted updated below with clarification on Microsoft's M&A deals.]

Microsoft just loves changing (or altogether removing) damaging articles from other people. What is the truth then? Which 15 companies did Microsoft buy? Was the claim forged perhaps? People like Microsoft shareholders should demand answers. ⬆

“After issuing several press releases on PR Newswire, Microsoft told the service to stop issuing my press releases. Microsoft is PR Newswire’s largest client. [...] Microsoft fired its internal auditor, regularly bullies reporters and has told numerous publications that I am an extremist. This might explain why reporters are afraid to print the facts, for instance that Microsoft took a $9 billion tax deduction for wages in 1999 and didn’t charge a dime of this amount against earnings.”

--Bill Parish