Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Downgraded Yet Again, CEO Bonus Cut, Goldman Sachs Says Microsoft Should be Split, and Company's CEO Acknowledges It May Vanish

Crack in ground



Summary: Cracks in Microsoft Corp. are becoming impossible to hide as the company's future starts to be doubted even by its biggest allies

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has called it "Microsoft's coming heart-attack moment" and Microsoft boosters too are struggling to spin it. For example, Marius Oiaga chose the headline "Ballmer: The Demise of Microsoft Should Be a Very Difficult Thing to Have Happen" and he quoted:



“We’ve seen technology companies come from nothing to something overnight. We’ve seen very few companies stay at a high level for a long time. I’d put Microsoft, I’d put IBM on the list,” Ballmer revealed.

At the same time, he pointed out that there is life after death. There have been companies which managed to come back after they fell apart. “I’d put Apple in that category because they almost disappeared,” Ballmer said.


"Just the fact that Ballmer would even discuss it as a probability shows that the company is slipping," argued Chips B. Malroy, who also left us with other news links, especially about those downgrades that worry Mini-Microsoft right now. “Diversify or die,” says Pogson and Malroy links to yet another downgrade, empahasising that "This is after the Goldman one."

“Just the fact that Ballmer would even discuss it as a probability shows that the company is slipping”
      --Chips B. Malroy
"GNU/Linux provided a quality alternative to Windows," he writes. "[Microsoft] has made bad insecure software with many problems for its users. The bad or dark side of MS, maybe driving more user to GNU/Linux than even all the good light side of Linux is doing to attract it."

But Microsoft's main problem at the moment is that it's too focused on desktops. "Windows Phone 7 Will Flounder," say even the Microsoft-sympathetic publications, citing Microsoft-paid 'analysts'.

Microsoft's introduction of Windows Phone 7, set to be formally introduced next week, will barely move the needle on the company's dismal share of the smartphone OS market, according to new data released Wednesday by industry analysts at Gartner.


Does this surprise anyone? The only noteworthy thing about it is that even people whom Microsoft has been grooming (Gartner Group) are unable to say something positive about this product from Microsoft, even days before its official launch. Ouch.

The Gates-funded (through investment) Goldman Sachs, which has also been Microsoft sympathetic over the years, "says Microsoft should split" and gives the company additional smackdown and a downgrade:

Wall Street super power Goldman Sachs has downgraded Microsoft stock from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral’, in a highly critical note it sent to its clients. Goldman blasts Microsoft for its poor outcomes in its mobile computing efforts. The real bomb, though, was the recommendation that Microsoft split its consumer business and enterprise business into two separate wings.


Vista Phone 7 [sic] may sell well compared to "KIN", but that's not a hard target to beat.

Microsoft has just been downgraded for at least the fourth time in recent weeks (for background see [1, 2, 3]) and Chips B. Malroy quotes:

Microsoft stock has been downgraded by yet another analyst, Sasa Zorovic of Janney Capital, over fears surrounding the company's mobile endeavors. While Windows Phone 7 is still an uncertainty, Zorovic points out that it is "difficult" for the company to catch up in the mobile arena, which is becoming increasingly important.


Ballmer's bonus has just been slashed [1, 2, 3] and "KIN" is named as part of the drivers:

The information about Ballmer's compensation came to light in filings with the US federal securities regulator yesterday, which stated that the reduced bonus was due to the "unsuccessful launch of the Kin phone, loss of market share in the company's mobile phone business, and the need for the company to pursue innovations to take advantage of new form factors".


Microsoft's heads of divisions are still somewhat of a mess looking for order [1, 2, 3] and Microsoft Nick provides some numbers on Ballmer's approval rate amongst employees:

That's the new conclusion drawn by Glassdoor.com, which surveys employees about the minutiae of their workplaces. Microsoft earned a 3.5 rating out of a possible 5, based on 1,613 responses (Compensation and Work/Life Balance notched particularly high scores). Ballmer himself had a 50 percent approval rating, based on 1,117 responses.


That's incredibly positive based on what we find among people who do not receive a paycheck from Ballmer. In a recent survey conducted in a Windows-oriented Web site, only 9% said that they wanted Ballmer to stay. Some regulars of Techright think that Ballmer's time at Microsoft is limited and may soon be ending. Either way, Microsoft's days too may be ending (except as SCO-like extortionist).

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Bloodlust and Love of Blades (Fascination With Murder) Nothing New Among Microsofters
Violence is not a joke and no group is magically entitled to make such "jokes"
Links 01/06/2025: Bird Flu, Food Price Inflation, and Growing US-China Hostilities
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025