Windows 7 - Ms and Skype -- Stock market is NOT impressed

Hi all
MS is certainly not to go away any time soon but Market watchers think that although MS is HUGELY cash rich -- without any decent strategic future revenue generating plans it will eventually (although it will take a few years of course) just wither away.

Does Microsoft=

cheers
jimbo

huh?

MS has been in the game since the beginning and seems to be holding out just fine. I'm sure they won't be stupid enough to crap on an upswing of OS success, a still widely used Office Suite, mobile device growth, and the most popular gaming system.

yes I agree - the monopoly thing gets old, but the other players are just as guilty. Hopefully this will encourage open-source development, but more than likely software development will end up being a tool for venture capitalists...if it already hasn't.

Venture capitalist some times is the only way to get things started. I'm thinking by the time it gets all said and done it will be a obsolete method of doing things. I think Microsoft is looking for a 7.7 billion wright off.

yeah - not to sure what they could get from this...code, technology - either kill the competition or integrate it with Kinect. I would guess those who programmed Kinect could easily put together something similar to Skype for much less.

That is absolutely correct.

Investors are interested in potential .

They want a company they think will continue to bring innovative products to market and that will be marketed cleverly.

That is why Apple is doing so well.

It is how the world works.

A quick lesson in stock markets for those who don't understand them .

It may be hard to understand - but MS is fighting for long term survival.

Unless they can bring innovative products to market - that really capture the public imagination - they will shrink and gradually cease to be relevant.

Steve Ballmer is under pressure to get it right.

MS might bring out something that captures a decent slice of the platform agnostic market - getting Nokia to be their handset maker - and integrating skype to those products - might do it.

If they do that - they are back in the game.

If they mess it up - they are only heading one way.

When I sit and dream of what my computer will be in ten years I can not in all honesty imagine it with out a MS OS...and that will be the tell all.

Hi all
I suppose on a technical Forum like this we tend to get carried away by looking for the Technical innovations or products.

Sometimes such "intransigble" data as a user customer base can be worth far more than the actual underlying asset of the company.

I'm sure MS is buying SKYPE not for any benefits they'd get out of the technology behind skype --its relatively simple and old hat now to provide VOIP (in "palin non techno geek English" -- Using Voice communication over the Internet) but to get access to the sheer numbers of USERS of the service with a possibility in the future of "buying them into" paid for subscription services.

Data acquisition like this makes a LOT of sense -- buying SKYPE just for the technology IMO would be a total waste of time and money anyway.

For instance I'll bet not a lot of people realize that with a bit of jiggery pokey -- so long as your smart phone has an Internet connection (wi fi enabled) you can actually use SKYPE from your mobile calling PLANET WIDE --saving a lot of expensive calls with International .Roaming charges etc.

Now since Ms is actively looking / making a smart phone OS incorporating this type of stuff into it makes perfect sense - especially if they have a large user base to start with.

Cheers
jimbo

Yes, of course they want the user base - that is why they are buying it.

Question remains - can they make good use of it.

Hi All
Skype has benefited from being independent of any operating system or platform. If there’s sufficient users for an operating system, Skype made the necessary software. Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android etc, all have Skype downloads because it was in Skype’s corporate interest to have broad based coverage.
Skype, Microsoft and Office - Office Watch

I agree completely. That's why I don't like big corporations like MS taking ownership. Now, the goals of Skype has to align perfectly with the goals of Microsoft and vice versa. When MS gets busy with OS releases and such, other sub products like Skype will take a backseat.