Microsoft turns 35: Best, worst and most notable moments | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft turns 35: Best, worst and most notable moments

computerworld.com

22 pointsdragonquest10 comments

Article reports 18% revenue rise in 08, but it fell again the next year:

    PERIOD ENDING	30-Jun-09	30-Jun-08	30-Jun-07
    Total Revenue	58,437,000  	60,420,000  	51,122,000

http://au.finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=MSFT&annual

Article also reports a 3% drop in revenue for 2009, Microsoft's first.

Whoops, and in the very next paragraph.

Not a well researched article. It states that Apple was in desperate need of cash when Microsoft invested $150 million. In fact, Apple had a few billion in cash at the time.

You fail to mention that Apple had a net loss of $816 million in 1996 and in 1997 it even went further down into the red.

I wonder if you can back up the 'a few billion in cash' statement with a source?

Sorry. It was only a billion and change. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-202143.html

edit: see also their SEC filings: http://xml.10kwizard.com/cgi/convert/pdf/APPLEINC10K.pdf?rep...

This still does not contradict the earlier statement. Apple had $1.2 billion in cash in reserve.

Presuming they were going to continue losing $800M a year, an investment of $150M does not "save" the company by any means. It only buys a tiny bit of time.

Keep in mind that competitors such as Compaq were losing far more money in the same period. Apple was having a bad year, but other companies were going under. The press at the time kept reporting how Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, which was never true, while completely ignoring how the entire industry was in a state of severe turmoil.

The real purpose of the Microsoft investment was to solidify their commitment to producing Microsoft Office for Mac, something which was far from certain at the time even though it was reported Microsoft was pulling in $400M in annual revenue from that business unit.

If you want fixed width, please centre it!

Just me?

I would have agreed with you before I discovered the Readability bookmark. I use it for all HN articles now!

This links to a print version. The original link is centered but has more clutter than content.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9173238/Microsoft_tur...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com