Due to some reports like this one, people have begun to speculate that Microsoft might buy Adobe, which is extremely unlikely for reasons that were brought up in IRC. If Microsoft ever thought about buying Adobe, then it confirms yet again it has an identity crisis (as new internal documents appear to suggest). The article from the New York Times begins as follows:

Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, recently showed up with a small entourage of deputies at Adobe’s offices to hold a secret meeting with Adobe’s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen.

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could team up in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.

Goldman Sachs, at one time the most respected Wall Street investment bank in the world, is urging Microsoft to shed its Xbox (and the entire entertainment division, actually) branch into its own company, and for Microsoft proper to just focus on the business, operating system and office software stuff.

Windows Phone 7 Buzz Muted by Naysayers

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In fact Microsoft is facing a wall of naysayers leading up this Monday when it will introduce its first batch of Windows Phone 7 phones. Analysts and investors are wary about Windows Phone 7's prospects. Third-party application developers are giving mixed reviews about the new smartphone platform. And average Joes and Janes are just making wisecracks.

Here's a look at what people are saying about Microsoft.

Microsoft Downgrade

Market research firm Gartner on Wednesday predicted that Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Phone 7 will not buoy the company's sagging mobile handset fortunes. Instead, Gartner predicts, Microsoft's global market share will drop from 4.7 percent in 2010 to 3.9 percent by 2014, according to Information Week.

Gartner's prediction follows Goldman Sachs downgrade of Microsoft's stock on Monday from "buy" to "neutral." The investment firm dinged Microsoft for its failure to gain "a firmer foothold in the growing migration to mobile devices," according to Bloomberg.

It's not hard to see where that criticism comes from. Apple's iPad, for example, has become the tablet device to beat and inspired a slew of competitors, and this has all happened in less than a year. Microsoft, meanwhile, has been trying to inspire tablet PC adoption for years without much success.

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