SingHash

Are Glorious Days Ahead for Microsoft?

Jack writes...

"However the lack of erosion in its incumbent business (for 25 years!) means that its core earnings are very unlikely to change."

I'm thinking of a company that was dominant -- absolutely, unassailably dominant -- for about 25 years. Big, powerful, and the only place to be if you really wanted to do serious computing.

Unfortunately, their business practices landed them in a bit of hot water, and they spent over a decade under intense legal scrutiny. It came to the point where legal caution stifled agility. When new, disruptive technologies emerged, the company was pummeled, decimated, and marginalized.

Eventually, they reinvented themselves and recovered pretty well -- but the paradigm had changed, and there were lots of new, more interesting places to work.

The company was IBM; the time span was 1960 - 1985. Microsoft -- which itself was instrumental in IBM's near-death experience -- is doing a lovely job of following a similar trajectory.

The best thing Microsoft could do for its shareholders right now (and I am one) would be to shut it down, liquidate its assets, and return the money to its shareholders.