Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Claimed to Have Lost $18,000,000,000 in 1998

Has anything changed since?

"Share and share unalike" was published in The Economist back in 1999. Strangely enough, the Economist's permanent URL is broken and the article is no longer there. Was it pulled?

Either way, we've managed to find this copy. Read this part closely:

For instance, Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company, declared a profit of $4.5 billion in 1998; when the cost of options awarded that year, plus the change in the value of outstanding options, is deducted, the firm made a loss of $18 billion, according to Smithers.


A reader who brought this to our attention added: "About that time Bill stepped down, probably having seen the books in advance."

One day we may all know the truth. In the mean time, and also this week, there are those who throw away all of their Microsoft shares whilst Microsoft is claimed to be very aggressive on the buybacks side.

We recently wrote about Microsoft's financial state in [1, 2, 3, 4].

"Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies"

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