Yes, once, or if MS lose their monopoly, it's all downhill for them. Their cap will fall badly, as will their recognition. I don't see this happening for a long long time though.

I think MS have been trying to prepare for any damage to their OS business by going through different media roots, for example into gaming, IM, MP3/4 players. They've basically been doing this with a 'copy and try to improve' method for quite a while now, and on the whole they haven't been very successful financially. This tells me that without their OS business, MS can't cut it in other electronic areas.

I'm rather amused by the number of people defending MikeB. Very telling.

By saying that he got some predictions right, which he did?

By putting factual information into a discussion?

By that he posted the safest possible predictions, then opted not to give us a link to the threads in which he made them.  If you've ever read one of his whole threads (he has many), you'll see he's quite out there (and the older members should know this).  Even compared to John Lucas, he's still very misguided.

Uhm... no. Just no, for all his fans and bravado in here, he has the most insane and inaccurate predictions in here. He's worse than Crazzyman and that says a lot.

@ appolose

I think you are over-reacting. Nice to see you think my predictions were safe, of course meaning they were far from "insane", "trollish" or whatever.

I will be adding links to the original post (I already linked to one thread as requested in this thread), hope that calms you down a little and IMO a thank you wouldn't be out of place for honoring your request?

MikeB said: @ appolose I think you are over-reacting. Nice to see you think my predictions were safe, of course meaning they were far from "insane", "trollish" or whatever. I will be adding links to the original post (I already linked to one thread as requested in this thread), hope that calms you down a little and IMO a thank you wouldn't be out of place for honoring your request?

I mean the predictions you posted here were safe.  The one like NJ5 posted from you are decidely not.  Nor did I say you were insane or trollish.  I don't know why you think I need calming down, and, finally, I would say thanks, but I don't want to speak for all the others that requested it before me.

Well, I'll just have to say here that I disagree with you, so as not to derail the thread.

Fixed

Judging a company by assets is wrong for a number of reasons.

1) Assets can carry debt.

2) Assets can carry expenses such as taxes, maintenance, insurance, employees, etc.

3) Assets can depreciate over time, especially those involving technology and equipment.

4) Assets can be very non-liquid, that is they can be difficult if not sometimes impossible to sell.

If assets truly had good business value, car companies would never fail. Sometimes assets such as factories and equipment lose money and can never be made profitable, despite having huge asset values.