Let's see if this will cause their stock to rise, would be funny if their investors wanted this!

Will never happen. Microsoft considers those products as battle fronts against the likes of Google, Apple, and Sony. They don't simply exist to make a profit for Microsoft, but to prevent growth among their competitors. They don't want their rivals taking over those sectors unopposed.

Sell Xbox? Brilliant idea. And Sony should sell PlayStation...

I was about to type the same thing. Well said.

Now I just need someone to tell Nintendo to sell Nintendo.

The problem is very simple.

The companies who have the money and would be willing to buy the Xbox Brand, are also companies that MS would never sell to. That and there is no reason that this should or would happen.

This is not the first time such comments have been made by analyst and it end up being the same thing. It shows a shortsighted nature of the analyst on what MS. Is today and where they need to be tomorrow. Selling established assets just because is never a good reason to do anything. The reason MS will keep the Xbox and bing is because they are services the company can bundle with out the DOJ getting in there business. Look how the DOJ is getting more and more into google business because they own a large share of the search market and they are bundling there services. The EU is also on there butt as well.

Xbox is a long term strategy for MS. As such the current management of the company would not even consider selling Xbox. However, by the end of the day, it is the will of the shareholders that determines the course of action. If enough shareholders are investing in MS as a personal short term strategy, they don't care about any long term strategies. In such a case, they would be willing to sell Xbox to make a quick personal profit.

We currently see the same thing happening with Sony, where a large group of shareholders with a personal short term strategy are demanding the sale of company assets (in this case Sony's movie business even though it clearly is part Sony's long term strategy).

This is not the first time, nor the last time, short term interest would destroy the potential of a company.

That wouldn't be a very good thing to do since the Xbox and Bing are getting to be a pretty integral part of their overlying plan.

“There may be a shift in the wind upcoming for Microsoft, with shareholders potentially demanding a greater say in the direction of the company and how it might be run to drive a better return to shareholders.”

They must've got wind of how much of a loss MS is planning to take on each X1 sold. Bad idea to sell off the Xbox franchsise though. Especially considering the gains into the console market it has made this gen.