Bonum Certa Men Certa

Hard Week for Microsoft, Next Week Likely Harder

Stock Dives



In what seems like a worthy punishment, Intel and Microsoft both suffered a major blow at the sight of stagnant sales.

Shares of Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, sank Wednesday after chip maker Intel Corp. said fourth-quarter sales missed already lowered expectations.


Even a music Web site has published an article about the effect of Microsoft's sharp drop in value.

Rap veteran E-40 is reviewing his stock market options after losing money from shares in software giant Microsoft and his fast food chain Fatburger.


Had it not been for massive buybacks, Microsoft's shares would be worth a lot less and so would the value of the company (as opposed to its cash reserves that rapidly run out [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]).

Cessation and Deflation



According to numerous reports, Microsoft has poured cold water on expansion plans.

Microsoft has put on hold any interest in further expanding its operations in Seattle because of the deteriorating economy, a spokesman said Tuesday.


Divisions Shutdown



According to this report, Microsoft will soon shut down some gaming divisions.

Reuters and other outlets have reported recently that both Microsoft and Sony will be closing some of their major gaming divisions in early 2009.


Microsoft has already shut down Ensemble Studios, as we mentioned in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Since XBox360 makes a loss per sale, Microsoft is now willing to go as far as suing a bankrupt company.

Microsoft Takes Legal Action Against Woolworths In The UK



It could be called the end of an era, as Woolworths in the United Kingdom has closed it's doors forever to the public. Amidst the announcement that Woolworths would be shutting down due to bankruptcy, there were the typical "everything must go" sales where the store was practically giving their goods away. Well everyone in the land of the Union Jack must not have got the memo, and Woolworths was left with a ton of overstock, and coincidentally some of that stock happened to be Xbox 360's. Now Microsoft isn't just trying to take legal action against Woolworths, or Deliotte who is the administrator of the now defunct retailer, just to crash their party.


This is also covered in:



How low have they sunk? [Clarification 08/01/09: this is in reference to Woolworths]

Layoffs



Some days ago we cited many reports of looming layoffs. There are some newer reports:



Regulation, Finally?



Another interesting report today comes from Satyam, which turns out to be a financial fraud.

Satyam Chief Quits, Admits Faking Financial Results



[...]

In a resignation letter submitted to Satyam's board, B. Ramalinga Raju said the company's balance sheet carries inflated bank and cash balances, non-existent accrued interest, understated liabilities, and overstated credit amounts owed to the company.


Satyam and Microsoft have a tight alliance.

It was almost 10 years ago that Bill Parish wrote: “Microsoft’s perspective is best reflected by Bob Herbold, Chief Operating Officer, to whom the CFO reports. Bob very sincerely replied, “Bill, everyone is doing it.” My response was that Microsoft is a leader and that others are now seeking to emulate these fraudulent practices they have legitimized. Naturally Bob was not pleased by this perspective and that was our final conversation."

It was around the same time that someone from inside Microsoft had already blown the whistle to highlight financial fraud [1, 2].

Nervous lady

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