| botong said: So they ended up making a $4b loss on the Xbox. Now, some people may think that this was acceptable to MS for the sake of getting their foot in the door, but I can't believe it. Can anyone name another company that took such a huge loss to enter an uncertain new market, in any industry? I'd really like to know if something like this happened before - if it has, it could change the picture I've been describing up to this point. |
Certainly, that's just the way it is when you enter a new market. For example, Amazon.com was entering a new market (new industry altogether actually) when it choose to do e-commerce. These are Amazon.com various Net Income (Loss) since it came into existance. (obtained from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-reportsAnnual)
1995 - $(303)1996 - $(6,246)1997 - $(31,020)1998 - $(124,546)1999 - $(719,968)2000 - $(1,411,273)2001 - $(567,277)2002 - $(149,132)2003 - $35,282That's roughly a $3 billion dollar loss and that was a complete new industry. $4 billion is sustainable loss for MS or else they wouldn't have pumped that much into it. They're in it for the longhaul.
