MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Feb 11, 08 - 12:57 pm Comment from: CandTsmac

Microsoft. Buying up the worlds loosers, 1 step at a time.

Microsoft. Your stock, our choice.

Feb 11, 08 - 12:57 pm Comment from: deepdish

lame.

good luck with that one MS

Feb 11, 08 - 01:04 pm Comment from: Ampar

Next up, Microsoft will seek to acquire a major children's cereal and a weapons manufacturer. They are not going to be satisfied until they are able to fail in every other conceivable market.

Your planet. Our megalomania.

Feb 11, 08 - 01:05 pm Comment from: Ampar

Did they also get Will Robinson in the deal?

Feb 11, 08 - 01:12 pm Comment from: amyhre

Do I hear the sound of money being flushed? With Yahoo rejecting them, I guess they just had to channel some wastage somewhere. Start small and work their way up.

Get ready for some nice hot Microsoft Chicken Soup.

Who knows what else Steve Ballmer will put in his shopping cart.

I love it!
"Danger - from Microsoft"

"They are not going to be satisfied until they are able to fail in every other conceivable market."

Seems to me that Microsoft did quite well. After all, pretty much the whole world of computer software is built around Microsoft products. Once you're that well established you can afford to dabble around in just about anything you like. It doesn't matter if your sideline makes a profit or not, as you may get other technology from it that enhances your main business.

I recall when Microsoft bought VirtualPC from Connectix - VPC is now a free download from Microsoft's website (for Windows only), and it works great on my Vista machine to run legacy Windows systems, or even Debian linux on my computer, without having to reboot to run those other systems. Microsoft wanted the virtualization technology that Connectix had developed because they're using in their server products.

The Apple Fanatics have some illusion about Microsoft "failing" when the company posted record profits again last quarter. The key word there is "illusion". If Microsoft is "failing" I'd hate to see them be phenomenally successful, as instead of laughing all the way to the bank, they'd own the bank.

Feb 11, 08 - 01:26 pm Comment from: Mr. Reeee

If you can't build it, buy it.

How long before MS kills it by improving it with WinDOS Mobile?

Feb 11, 08 - 01:28 pm Comment from: Think

Sorry, but trying to get into corporate minds with a product called "Danger" just doesn't sell.
Teenagers, yes. Corporate suits, no.

Feb 11, 08 - 01:29 pm Comment from: Ampar

""Danger - from Microsoft"

You'll boot your Windows Mobile device and the startup image is an angry Clippy threatening you with a switchblade. "Buy my add-ons or I'll cut you, bitch!"

TEH Dangers is nigh

Danger is right..Danger for Apple when Microsoft begins it's dominant march towards mobile gaming supremacy. In 8 months, the iPhone will be a mere footnote in technological history. You have been warned..

Feb 11, 08 - 01:53 pm Comment from: Renderdog

Anyone who has read Louis Gerstner's book about his years at IBM, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" will remember his comments about buying other companies. It's rarely a good sign.

Gerstner managed IBM's turnaround from the brink and knows what he's talking about. Personally I'm hoping Microsoft buys Yahoo, that would probably be a really big nail in their coffin.

Eventually Microsoft will have to find an outsider like Gerstner to turn them around, hopefully after Apple has 20%+ market :o)

This place is getting lame-brainer by the minute. sidekicks are popular devices, despite what everybody "thinks" in here...

jeezis. kool-aid is definitely on tap today.

Feb 11, 08 - 02:01 pm Comment from: Spark

@drbyers

The Sidekick my be popular, by your account, but losing $28 million on $56 million of sales does not a successful company make. I think the disdain you are seeing here is aimed more at MS, which seems to think it can bolster its position via acquisition of market trailing, profitless companies.

Feb 11, 08 - 02:02 pm Comment from: Spark

Bill Gates would be spinning in his grave... if he were dead.

I owned the first Sidekick that came out, it really was an amazing piece of consumer data heavy usage device, i'm sure it got better over time, shame that it's about to die a cold death

Feb 11, 08 - 02:08 pm Comment from: ragarcia

@ Former Mac User,

An economic system goes into a recession (or recovers from one) way earlier than the economic measures tell you so.

That is to say, usually we have been in a recession for six months before all the measurements come in and tell you that you are in a recession.

Thus, just because M$ reported record profits does not mean that they aren't facing legitimate life-threatening battles.

Don't trust me, trust Wall Street. If M$ was really doing so amazingly well, its stock would really reflect this and at least for now and the past five years, it does not look like it is a good company to invest in.

Why?

Because the name of the game is not profits, it is GROWTH!!!

In its key markets, growth-wise, M$ is stagnant to declining and in the new markets it has entered it is a non-player (except for the game-selling market, notice I did not say the platform-selling market).

The day M$ posted its earnings, CNBC interviewed someone at M$ and I thought it was very telling that while the CNBC interviewer was ultra-excited about the XBOX division and all the other good news reported by M$ the guy was mostly talking about how the XBox and Zune weren't really the reason for their success, but rathe the revenue from their gaming network and game sales.

This to me indicates that M$ is a primarily and ultimately a software company...DUH! So why in the heck do they insist in doing hardware related things?

It will be their downfall...and that is no illusion.

Feb 11, 08 - 02:16 pm Comment from: Wade Smith

Ballmer just thinks he can get a fresh young thing from this. Problem is, the Sidekick is already getting to be passé in that market.

...attempting to fail in every available market!

Feb 11, 08 - 02:42 pm Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

When is dumb ass Microsoft going to buy up Krispy Kreme? Balmer looks like he already consumes everything they make.

Someone's feeling the pressure. hehehee When you can't innovate...

sounds like Microsoft is Drunk Shopping.

"wehll... Yayhoo isn' fur sayle... less jus' but a new cell phone."

Feb 11, 08 - 02:54 pm Comment from: Cubert

Hiptop devices??? Typical Microsucks. Their implementation of a mobile multitouch device is a big-ass table strapped to your waist.

Feb 11, 08 - 03:39 pm Comment from: shen

"This place is getting lame-brainer by the minute. sidekicks are popular devices, despite what everybody "thinks" in here...

jeezis. kool-aid is definitely on tap today."

yes, they are popular. untill MS ruins them with crapmobile technology.

this only means a few more people who will be forced to consider an iPhone when their current choice is destroyed by a company that is stupid.

drink your kool-aid if you want, but MS has never made anything better after they bought it....

Microsoft didn't buy Danger because it is a highly profitable company. That would cost a premium. Microsoft bought Danger because it wanted the Sidekick technology, but bought at a discount because the company is going under, or at least performing very poorly.

IF Microsoft can use Danger's technology to help it turn a profit in the mobile market, then it was a good buy. If not, then Microsoft just added another company to its stockpile of failed technologies (which most long-lived technology companies have, including Apple).

Feb 11, 08 - 04:28 pm Comment from: LordRobin

"Former Mac User" seems unable to comprehend how Apple fans can see Microsoft as "failing" when they continue to dominate the PC market and make gobs of cash. Fair enough.

Myself, I'm unable to comprehend how Windows fans can possibly see Microsoft as anything but failing. I mean, c'mon! How blind do you have to be?

-- Microsoft has no room to grow in their primary markets.
-- Every other market they've attempted to enter has failed utterly, with the debatable exception of the XBox.
-- Their stock has flatlined for what, six years now?
-- Vista is a pile of crap and anyone paying attention knows it. Almost none of their business customers, the customers Microsoft depends on, are switching over!

Microsoft's corporate name is mud. Nobody likes them anymore. (I can't believe there still are "Windows fans".) Doing business with Microsoft is seen as a necessary evil. They are thriving on the incredible inertia generated by decades of strangling dominance in the business market. But this inertia should not be mistaken for continued success, and it will not last forever.

------RM

Former Mac User....
Dosn't matter if MS has the biggest share of the pie it's still crap (in most not all things). Once you take the leap of faith to the Mac you'll realise your way is not the only way.

Feb 11, 08 - 11:25 pm Comment from: Bogus Jimmy

I guess this means my current hiptop (that's the real name for the T-Mobile branded sidekick) will be my last.

Bring on the iPhone in Australia!

Feb 12, 08 - 05:24 am Comment from: HolyMackerel

Isn't this the Zune all over again?

The Danger phone will be incompatible with the Windows Mobile Phone and no doubt upset their existing 'partners'. When will they ever learn? Will they bring out a PC next that is incompatible with Windows?

Former Mac User = Zune Tang wannabe?