"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."

--The Economist, 1999

Summary: Fraudulent firm Goldman Sachs is where Microsoft gets its next CFO from (C*O-level master of accounting at the relative young age of 41); reminder of the dark (but censored) history of accounting practices at Microsoft

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here have been shades of Enron at Microsoft, with whistleblowers already alleging financial fraud at the abusive, dishonest monopolist which employed them. Microsoft paid millions of dollars for such whistleblowers to shut up after they had complained and later Microsoft settled with the prosecutors (another bribe). This has not the hallmark of a company that does remarkably well. In the US, quite famously, large corporations including oil giants are receiving government subsidies (taxpayers' money or deeper national debt). It is marketed as necessary to protect "national interests" or "national security" (the latter usually applies to surveillance and military force). Remember how Goldman Sachs and other rogue financial firms got bailed out by taxpayers' money that those taxpayers don't even have (thus contributing to national debt rather than corporate debt). It's debt-shifting. Anyway, the point to be made here that a lot of institutionalised corruption is going on, and it is going on unpunished. It's a systemic issue. The existence of this issue need not be met with disbelief.

"In the US, quite famously, large corporations including oil giants are receiving government subsidies (taxpayers' money or deeper national debt).""Microsoft on Wednesday named Amy Hood its new chief financial officer, effective immediately," says IDG. Watch the urgency: "Hood was promoted from CFO of the Microsoft Business Division (MBD). She replaces outgoing CFO Peter Klein, whom Microsoft would stay at the company through the end of June "to ensure a smooth transition.""

Where did Hood come from? Well, here goes IDG again: "Hood, 41, joined Microsoft's investor relations team in 2002 after working as an investment banker and capital markets analyst at Goldman Sachs."

We wrote about Goldman Sachs's connections with Microsoft several times before. Remember that Microsoft already bribed Klein and his predecessor [1, 2] (the last two CFOs) to keep silent about what they had seen. iophk, who is older than the new Microsoft CFO, says that Microsoft "ran a loss recently in spite of Enron accounting. Seems to have been going on since 1998" (he cites The Economist for support).

“It's noteworthy that Microsoft ran a loss in 1998, but then changed it's accounting to cover the loss.”
      --iophkBe sceptical of Microsoft financial figures because we know damn well (it is easily provable) that it lies about software 'sales' all the time. Insiders from Microsoft already told the world that Microsoft cheats in its financial reports. Microsoft bribed to silence them all. It's the usual financial distortion of Microsoft profit reports and information about profits. When it comes to Vista 8, the real numbers are estimated to be just half what Microsoft claims them to be.

"It's noteworthy that Microsoft ran a loss in 1998, but then changed it's accounting to cover the loss. Now, even with the new accounting, it's running a loss that it can't cover up," concludes iophk. Yes, Microsoft reported losses. ⬆