BUSINESS DONE - HOW

 

Father: I want you to marry a girl of my choice.

Son: “I will choose my own bride!”

Father: “But the girl is Bill Gates’s daughter.”

Son: “Well, in that case…OK”

Next Day

Father approaches Bill Gates.

Father: “I have a husband for your daughter.”

Bill Gates: “But my daughter is too young to marry!”

Father: “But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank.”

Bill Gates: “Ah, in that case… OK”

Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Father: “I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president. ”

President: “But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!”

Father: “But this young man is Bill Gates’s son-in-law.”

President: “Ah, in that case… OK”

This is how business is done!!

Credits to http://www.louisraj.com/?p=227 

Update 1: Okay, i use Google Analytics -its a web statistics software. According to Analytics loads of people are visiting this page after searching for "Bill Gates Daughter" and its variants . Shame on you!! Bill Gates has three kids and his eldest daughter is 11 years old - so dont even think about it.

Update 2: Thought i should disclose the "search statistics" for this particular page! take a look. This blog of mine usually gets between 0-5 hits a day , but ever since google picked up this page, traffic has sky rocketed (in relative terms) to about 60 in the past 2 days . Thank you all for visiting and googling about Bill Gates' daughter - too bad he's billionaire and his daughter is not old enough to date, even if she were - it will definitely not be with me or you! Now, move along folks lets gossip about Britney Spears or Angelina Jolie.

This year started with something in the air; but for investors, it didnt smell good enough. While the latest size bumps to the iPhone & iPod Touch line has been long rumored and probably in the making for some time now, Apple finally let this one to the wild. With this update to the iPod line-up, you can get one at just about any size. This size bump seems to have also pushed up AAPL share prices.

• Shuffle - 1GB
• Nano - 4GB, 8GB
• Touch - 8GB, 16 GB, 32GB
• Classic - 80GB, 160 GB

And then we had take 2 on Apple TV, and Apple totally took this one off from Microsoft's XBOX 360- the ability to Download Content (Movies, in HD) directly to the device, without a PC. So hey whose got their photocopiers running?

Zune 8 now ownable for $179!! Or you could get a fat Zune 30 for about the same price +/- 5 bucks. But will you do it? Settle for a bigger older version with greater capacity and mammoth dimensions? Ohh well, save yourself the ridicule and grab a Zune 8 now! Before stocks run out (and they actually did <sometime back>- the 80gb ones)...Now if only i lived in the US and had $179; I'll just whistle by and expect them to pay me $44 Billion to use a zune.

Microsoft is offering to buyout Yahoo for 44 Billion US Dollars, in a bid to more effectively compete against Internet Search dominator Google. There have been many rumors about this , and letter of intent from Microsoft's board to Yahoo's board (of directors) is now officially sent.Mind you, thats about Microsoft's 3 years operating income (05,06,07) and less than one years revenue. This comes at a time when Microsoft's own Online Services Business has been fumbling -netting the division a quatearly loss of 248 Million dollars. Yahoo's own operating income has fumbled with a 26% drop in profit (YOY 07/06), Yahoo's operating income stood at 695 Million Dollars for year ending 2007 which is clearly shadowed by Microsoft's divisional loss of 732 Million Dollars for Fiscal Year ending June 2007. 

Microsoft see's the acquisition of Yahoo as a step to expand R&D, improve Operational Efficiencies and run their online business on a scale of economy to help dampen its online investements.

I personally feel that buying out Yahoo is more off buying out a "market share" along with a few good Web Real Estate. I fully believe that the Windows Live Team is capable of achieving great heights left to themselves. The problem seems to centre more around this "Windows" , by trying to make all of Microsoft's products relevant to Windows, Microsoft is losing sight of the market. An example of this would the Office Live Workspace. This product has been intentionally crippled that it does not allow its users to "create" or "edit" documents. Whereas it allows you to View, Download and Share Documents while allowing you to create "Notes". This has been intentionally inflicted upon this otherwise good piece of online software to ensure that the service is used in unison with Microsoft Office and not standalone. With such a mentality how would one expect a successful online service oriented business?
Meanwhile Google happily adds features to its online word processing, spreadsheet and presentation utilities, which can also work offline with the help of a Google plug-in know as Google Gears.

In my opinion, Microsoft must give a free reign to its Live developers to help better compete against Google.It is my belief that Microsoft has the potential to win the uphill battle against Google, Yahoo's acquisition may help in this battle; but a key factor to be considered is the business outlook and strategies formed in Redmond. It is time Microsoft develops an independent online offering , a more unified branding and easy to use online services that are fully functional by themselves and not as a complement to product purchases or software.

With the acquisition of Yahoo!, Microsoft will have a complete Web 2.0 portfolio and will own key internet properties such as Flickr and Delicious. It is best that Microsoft switches to Yahoo for search results while the joint R&D teams are able to develop better  search algorithms with their combined patents and knowledge base. A competent Ad-Delivery network that can compete against Google AdSense , DART and FeedBurner needs to be developed.

With the expanded portfolio, Microsoft can develop an effective Advertising strategy along with superior paid services for multimedia content (something Google has failed - Google Video, and Yahoo not very successful). Whereas Microsoft has the expertise to deliver appealing services (XBOX Live) , it only has to apply its experience to a broader offering. 

Microsoft's OFFER

• $44.6 Billion

• $31 per share
• $31 cash, or
• 0.9509 of Microsoft share
• Shareholder election subject to 50/50 proration

• Targeted to close in 2nd half of CY’08

Meanwhile Google's shares have dropped 9.4% or 53 USD (10:48AM ET) as its earnings missed Wall Streets expectations. Microsoft shares have dropped 6.2% or 2 USD (10:47AM ET), Yahoo shares are up 43% or 8.24 USD (10:50 AM ET).

Want to know the secret behinds el-jobso's oh-so-successful keynotes? its "Boom". Watch Steve Boom across his keynotes!

Not bad, but for the (US) economy. Its ‘investor relationship’ time & nothings more exciting than analyzing Microsoft (things get interesting when this is done by an engineer <in the making> and not an economist) 

Here is what Microsoft’s second quarter earnings (ending Dec 31, 2007) look like in brief:
16.3 Billion Dollars in revenue as compared to 12.5 billion (Q2 2006), that’s a lot of fallen trees. 

But what is eye catching in their form 10Q is the warranty settlement part (remember the rrod?)
Microsoft spent 86 Million $ on warranty settlement between July 1, 2007 - September 30,2007 as compared to 189 Million @ Between September 30,2007 to December 31,2007.
Although over 1 Billion dollars has been allocated (of which 861 Million remain) specifically to address the RROD issues, a 100% increase in claims does not look good.

The Online Service business does not seem very rosy either, although Microsoft managed to rake in 863 Million dollars in revenue (625M Q2-06), the operating loss of this division seems to be widening at a faster rate. The division recorded an operating loss of 248 Million dollars (116M Q2-06).

On the positive side, its Client and Business Divisions are seeing good growth. Entertainment Division is doing well (positive income for 3 quarters now) 334 Million for Q2-07.

What does not look good about the Entertainment Division is their revenue growth - or to be very frank - the Wii eating the 360's growth.

Revenue: 3.06 Billion vs 2.9 Billion (Q02-07 vs Q02-06), whereas 4.9 Billion vs 3.9 Billion (H1-07 vs H1-06).
As you may have notice from the above numbers, the quarterly growth during the holiday season (as seen in the respective second quarters) remains constant. This could in a way be attributed to the rising popularity of the Wii gaming console. [or conveniently blamed on the subprime crisis and lower consumer spending]

What should Microsoft do?
* Needs to get its online offering ramped up
   - Fix Live, Live Search, Live Mail.
* Become good @ advertising
   - Seek newer markets - location based advertising (mobile and other devices), rich streaming advertisements (free content), and text advertisements on web sites
* Fix Vista (although i haven’t had any issue's)
   - Better treatment of Ultimate users (remember Ultimate Extras)
* Diversify into Devices - PMP's, custom UMPC's
* Revamp Windows Mobile


Official Filings can be found at the Microsoft Web Site or at my SkyDrive