http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/42029
From the article:
"...Ok, ok, you say. Microsoft is in H&E for the long run. After all, they're in it for 20 yards ($20 billion in FX-speak), and there is the whole "window to the living room" strategy thing that will take years to play out. But they can afford it. My response: so what? So they can absorb $5 billion in operating losses and they just took another $1.1 billion hit. Is this better then, say, paying a big dividend back to shareholders? Or making a strategic acquisition that can augment a business they actually understand and that leverages their core competencies? Theirs appears to be a strategy of conglomeration which, by the way, generally is not rewarded in the stock market (see Electric, General). This isn't the 1960s, Microsoft is not ITT and Steve Ballmer is not Harold Geneen. So, I've never bought this diversification argument and I never will. And their numbers continue to bear out my thesis: success in their core, failure in their non-core. They can stop the bleeding if they want. But they won't."
I may have misinterpreted the 20 billion to mean losses rather than cost...
As for Wii taking 50% of the console only market (in lifetime sales)...Wii accounts for ~56.7% of all consoles sold in 2007. By year end, lifetime sales for Wii should be roughly 45% of all consoles (Wii,PS3,360) sold worldwide. 50% lifetime could come sometime between March 1 and June 30 2008, although alot depends on MGS4, GTA, pricedrops, manufacturing, etc.
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
When there are more laws, there are more criminals.
- Lao Tzu
