Microsoft may spinoff Xbox brand?

[Alby_da_Wolf]

kowenicki said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:

kowenicki said:

mike_intellivision said:
Interesting how long term profit and loss potential (history) does not get taken into account by market analysts.

I wonder how much of an operating loss and/or for how long Microsoft will take on th XB1. I also wonder where all the R&D shows up on the accounting statements.

in the E&D division.

much of it will already have been in there.

Actually not: part of R&D costs (and many other costs too, including legal expenses) of all divisions are accounted for in the "cauldron" balance sheet item named "Corporate-Level Activity"

http://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar12/financial-review/discussion-analysis/index.html

This makes quite difficult to exactly tell if a division with operating income greater than zero, but less than Corporate-Level Activity, is actually profitable or not.

actually yes.  which is why i said much of it. not all of it.

Ooops, right, I had misread.     I actually wanted to answer Mike's question about how and where the costs are accounted for, and how it's difficult to tell for sure profits or losses of each division, but your short answer was right anyway.

BTW, in the past, iirc, that Corporate-Level Activity was explained, in MS balance sheets, with a clearer wording, what I understood back then about R&D costs was that if the R&D is exclusiive for that division, than it's accounted for in that division's balance, while if its scope is wider than a single division, then it's accounted for in Corporate-Level Activity.