Summary: Bloomberg delivers 'damage control' and PR ahead of the layoffs announcement; Microsoft uses Nokia to hide it and Bloomberg helps Microsoft by radically modifying headlines

THERE has been something notably insidious about the coverage of Microsoft matters (and its rivals) in the Wall Street-friendly, plutocrat-owned Bloomberg.

Years ago we found explosive evidence about Dina Bass from Bloomberg. It showed how Microsoft had been grooming her and using her to produce puff pieces. Earlier this month Bass 'broke' the story about Microsoft layoffs but mostly delivered 'damage control', PR and spin. She was acting like a messenger of Microsoft. Microsoft is basically trying to blame it on Nokia, which Microsoft itself just merely destroyed (so much for the "job creator" nonsense).

The reality of Microsoft's numbers is quite grim. For starters, actual sales (numbers) were down, which has nothing to do with Nokia. Watch this Bloomberg report titled "Microsoft’s Quarterly Profit Hurt by Nokia Acquisition". This article actually had the headline "Microsoft Profit Misses Estimates on Weak Demand", but this headline was changed by the editor. Fortunately we spotted this discrepancy and it shows that someone inside Bloomberg is changing the story. Suddenly it's the fault of "Nokia Acquisition" rather than "Weak Demand". Big difference, eh? We saw similar misdirections years ago when Microsoft announced other major layoffs.

If one looks closely at the cause, GNU/Linux (in the form of Chrome OS for the most part) is gaining as Microsoft simply scrambles to keep up (dumping) and still fails. As one article put it, "Microsoft (MSFT) has good reason to be worried about Chromebooks, the cheap laptops that run Google’s (GOOG) Chrome operating system." Sales of Windows are down significantly and a lot of staff is being laid off. As for Nokia, Ahonen says there are "still no profits out of the ex-Nokia handset businessthat Elop wrecked. The smartphone unit has now produced 12 consecutive quarters of losses!" That's since Microsoft stepped in. "Nokia Xpress Browser and MixRadio are likely to be spun off into a separate business," says this article, so maybe we have another Jolla in our hands, or another Digia.

"I see that Microsoft has deployed another "Get The FUD" campaign against Chromebooks," Ryan said in the IRC channels, "like they did when they lost their lunch to Linux in the server market. This time they're even buying Google ads. I can't blame them. Nobody uses Bing. It's even thrown in your face in Vista 8.1, but it must be the first thing people turn off, because even that isn't helping them." ⬆