Wedbush Securities Senior Analyst Michael Pachter was asked during the latest episode of the Pack Attack videocast what’s his opinion on the possibility of Microsoft selling its Xbox Division and his reply was quite clear cut:

Dumb and Dumber.

He continued by explaining that he’s not sure why anybody would say that Microsoft should sell their Xbox division, since that’s the only profitable part of their business. Pachter also added that analyst Rick Sherlund didn’t do his numbers right on the issue and Xbox makes “a ton of money.” They have probably lost a lot on the first Xbox and on the red ring of death on the Xbox 360, but now they’re in the black.

Pachter also mentioned that Microsoft is doing everything right right now with Xbox One except the the pricing of the console.

There’s no chance they’re selling the division, so thinking about that is dumb. It isn’t gonna happen.

Personally, I have to agree here. When I first heard about the idea that Microsoft should spin off the Xbox Business my face and my palm were affected by irresistible mutual gravitational forces, to say in a less trivial way that I facepalmed. Quite hard, actually.

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/01/pachter-on-microsoft-selling-xbox-dumb-and-dumber-theyre-doing-everything-right-except-price/

No other company could sustain the Xbox brand. There is so much of MS in that box. Xbox is already a success story and an important asset for MS to appeal to a wider market than just businesses.

If Pacther says this everyone should be worried.

Microsoft is still losing money off the Xbox division, and have been for years. Pachter is a horrible analyst, and I doubt any business would ever take him seriously. Any business that does is in risk of losing a lot of money.

Everything will change at this years E3.

"He continued by explaining that he’s not sure why anybody would say that Microsoft should sell their Xbox division, since that’s the only profitable part of their business."

... that's not true at all, right?

"(..) their Xbox division, since that’s the only profitable part of their business."

What?

They've had a net income of $21.86bn last year. No way that's all on XBox. Sure, maybe XBox is in the black now, but it's still a small fish. I don't get what Pachter is talking about here. :-/

EDIT: Knesnik-ninja.

He was probably talking about the EDD and not all of MS.

Of course he is. Rick Sherlund has showed him to be useless. I rather trust the word the Sherlund, a respected analyst and a close friend of Bill Gates who has very close ties to MS than Pachter.

He however, is now considered a fool by some more "intelligent" people.

http://n4g.com/news/1341038/rick-sherlund-owns-pachter-xbox-is-cool-but-microsoft-has-not-made-any-money-off-this