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Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

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onlyrealcuzzo·

Compare it how?

Isn't Citi as different from Chase bank as Microsoft is from Google?

Sure - they are both "financial" companies just like Microsoft and Google are both "tech" companies.

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Microsoft and Google are pretty similar IMO, since both have: a browser, a search engine, an operating system, have or have tried to have a phone, both do some amount of hardware, and both also have cloud platform offerings.

One makes money selling software and one makes money selling ads.

I think that distinction will shrink over time as Microsoft sees ads as the future of their revenue growth.

Microsoft sees ads as an add-on to existing revenue streams. It's core is software and software services.

They couldn't be more different other than both being tech companies.

People show up for their salary, they work hard for their bonus. The core part of the revenue is taken for granted as they focus on developing new parts, specifically the ads part. It allows for an up-and-coming exec to say "I made X for Microsoft, you should pay me Y% of X". So even though it would only account for a small % of total revenue it would dominate the thinking. It's how ideas such as ad supported Windows happen despite the long term deterius effect that would have on the core business.

They are all financial institutions of comparable size and using similar business models.

The fact that JP Morgan Chase reported Q4 profit at $9.3 bln on the highest annual revenue for any bank EVER, and Bank of America reported Q4 profit at $3.1bln, while Citibank reported net LOSS of $1.8bln, should tell you everything you need to know about how well these organization are managed.

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