Steve Ballmer's bogus threat

[Craig White]

On Wed, 2002-03-06 at 20:24, George Toft wrote:
> Hi Doc,
> 
> Do you have a reference for this claim?  Here's my math:
> Number of copies of Windows sold by Microsoft by 1999: 200 million
> Average licensing cost disclosed during Anti-Trust trial: $50 (about)
> Total revenue: $1 Billion.
> 
> I really don't think MS paid that much for their OS development.  
> Windows 95 was built by 100 people  (based on an Easter Egg embedded 
> in Windows).  Let's say they averaged $60K per year, and it took 3 
> years to build: $60K * 100 * 3 = $18,000K.  So it cost about 
> $30Million (had to adjust for overhead, SS taxes, benefits, etc).
> 
> Here's a link from MS that shows they sold 1 million copies
> of Win2K Server (which they get about $750 each):
> http://www.microsoft.com/nz/presscentre/articles/2000/Mar15-03-OneMillionPR.stm
> So that means they made almost $1 billion in about 1 month time, 
> on just Win2K Server.
> 
> Somehow, I'm not convinced they are selling it at a loss.  Surely
> it is not a profitable as the Server series, but it is still 
> profitable.
> 
-----
This is all fine and good but it is a red herring to the topic under
discussion. Microsoft is a profitable company and last time I checked,
our capitalistic society loves and praises profitable companies. They
are unquestionably the most successful business of the 1990's.

The issue already settled is whether Microsoft has used their 'monopoly'
on the desktop to control other items, dictate terms to the industry,
bundle middleware and productivity software in a fashion that precludes
competition and in fact, eliminate competition in an unfair fashion.

So what is left is the remedy and Steve Ballmer's comments were an off
the cuff reaction to the amended remedy proposed by the 9 states that
have refused to go along with the capitulation program offered by W's
justic department (damn George Bush). I think it's interesting to note
that Microsoft - thru Ballmer has made it clear that they haven't
learned a thing through all of this - in their minds, it's their ball
and they will see to it that they intend to carry on as if nothing
happened. The only solution has been, still is and will always be to
break the company up.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that almost to a lockstep,
American businesses have bought into the Microsoft package and didn't
realize how much it is gonna cost them in the long run.

Craig