Summary: Don't be too baffled by very large-scale Microsoft layoffs (a lot more were laid off than the media admits^*) and endless vapourware, even attempts to take over other companies (maybe just to offload debt before insolvency^**)

"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

_____ ^* Number of rounds of layoffs seems to be two or three so far this year; it's rather clear, based on scattered reports, that it is multiple rounds and not just a 'one-off' in January.

^** To quote a Techrights associate: "It's important to drive home the point that Microsoft has hidden an $18 billion loss in 1999 and probably also a running loss ever since with the help of the occasional bailout and offloading debt onto newly-acquired victims."