A COUPLE a years ago we noted that Microsoft had lost 18 billion dollars in 1998 (when Microsoft was in huge trouble with the law, later to face breakup) and a few days ago we wrote about Microsoft's CFO being paid millions of dollars under peculiar circumstances that are familiar [1, 2].
The following new post is titled "Can big companies adapt?" It refers to the fact that Microsoft fails to innovate while Microsoft itself is lying about its innovations [1, 2, 3, 4]. Here is the curious part about "debt-financed balance sheet" (as above):You start. You struggle against initial inertia to gain velocity. You succeed. You grow. Your success breeds more success. Momentum is now your friend. But the world changes: technology, markets, society… And your hard won momentum keeps hurtling your (now large and profitable) company down the same trajectory. And momentum is now your enemy. Ah, the joys of…inertia.
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This indeed was my prescription for Microsoft when I wrote two years ago that they should break-up the company and re-jig the capital structure, running the Windows/Office businesses for cash (with a debt financed balance sheet) and let a thousand new baby Microsofts bloom.