Innovation does not happen overnight, says Microsoft's Ballmer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 May 2007 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie is quiet behind the scenes originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 May 2007 19:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Liveblogging Microsoft's Q2 quarterly results

Liveblogging Microsoft's Q2 quarterly results originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't get no love. His famous "monkey boy" performance is crazy-popular among those who thrive on poking fun at (and re-mixing) Ballmer's sweaty antics. He's being marginalized as Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie are groomed to replace Gates (and, we imagine, Ballmer as well) -- and reporters and analysts are jostling to get past him and talk to Ozzie, who everyone seems to adore.

Now the worst possible judgment, from Business 2.0 Magazine. He just doesn't matter. And what's more: he matters less than anyone in business. Ouch.

In conjunction with the mag's "50 Who Matter Now" list (featuring Ray Ozzie and competitive leaders Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and worst of all for Ballmer's ego, Bill Gates himself), Ballmer headlines the "10 People Who Don't Matter" segment. "Let's face it: The head of the world's biggest software company is a lame duck," the judgment begins.

A lame duck who decides what happens with billions of investors' -- of your -- cash. Somehow, that's not very comforting.

Steve Ballmer matters less than anyone in business? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I predict that, for the rest of the summer, all news of Microsoft, Inc. will be tinged by the impending departure of Bill Gates from day-to-day operations. Who will take his mantle? Who else will leave? And, grandly, what will be his legacy?

Steve Hamm of BusinessWeek wonders, will Gates be remembered for his innovations and good works, or for his anti-competitive "bare-knuckle tactics"? Hamm's conclusion seems to be that Gates deserves the Carnegie legacy (as opposed to Rockefeller) thanks to the thousands of millionaires he minted and the great works he's already begun to do with his foundation.

Evidently, the legacy didn't look great to investors (or maybe they're just still smarting over Google's success in capturing Adobe's heart, an obvious snub of Microsoft in favor of the company's oogly rival), as the stock was down 20 cents to $22.88.

Microsoft after the bell 06-22-06: the Gates legacy? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Evidently, investors were feeling good about Microsoft's future today, after concerns late last week. Maybe it was the new version of Messenger released today. Maybe it was general warm-and-fuzzies over the prospects of leaders like Ray Ozzie, who will inherit much of Bill Gates' technology leadership (and, if Ray's listening to Steve Gillmor's advice, he will "seize control of the company alongside Steve Ballmer, not as a greater of equals with Craig Mundie"). Either way the stock was up over 2%, or 45 cents, to $22.55.

MSN Messenger has been renamed along with so many other properties under the "MSN" moniker, to "Windows Live Messenger." While I don't love this focus on the "live"-ness of everything Microsoft (as opposed to the dead messenger? We all know that instant messenger programs do get people in the flesh, it seems so redundant to have to mention that), people seem excited about the new product.

Oddly, though, the "live" debut seems to have hit a snafu ... users are reporting a "coming soon" page where the press release points to a download.

Microsoft after the bell 06-19-06: messenger upgrade, everybody loves Ray originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What is Microsoft's largest challenge these days? Google? Yahoo!? Open-source software? Its own fumblings? All of those partially contribute to the equation. But the larger picture says that Microsoft's ability to grow, using any and all methods that can sustain the company long-term, is its biggest challenge. So, how does old Softie go about growing? That is the billion-dollar question.

Does Bill Gates' recent decision to leave day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft reflect that he knows growth from a well-planned changing of the guard is needed? Probably so. Blogging Stocks' Peter Cohan's post paints a good view of what is coming to Microsoft if it wants to reward itself and shareholders by ensuring growth and the most cohesive corporate strategy comes to fruition -- perhaps it can survive better and compete at the needed pace by divesting itself into separate entities.

It's odd that a seemingly-simple information conduit like the web browser could turn out to be Microsoft's greatest fear -- how can it grow to bypass the need for equitable and freely-accessible information and applications that live on the web and not on the PC? Sun Microsystems' former CEO Scott McNealy, although chided constantly at the company he founded for not growing at a rapid pace like the competition, was quite prophetic years ago by proclaiming that "the network is the computer."

This is a mantra that current CEO Jonathan Schwartz still trumpets to this day. Perhaps McNealy will get the last laugh over Bill Gates after all -- or maybe not. Microsoft doesn't want this network computing consumer trajectory just yet. That is, not until it can develop and deliver an infrastructure to compete on that layer -- something Google just can't stop doing. Ray Ozzie has a monumental task ahead.

Microsoft's biggest challenge isn't Google or open-source competitors originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft's stock price hasn't moved much since 2002 and Bill Gates signaled he's ready for a leadership makeover. The winner for that challenge is Ray Ozzie, who joined Microsoft just a year ago after his company, Groove Networks, was bought by Microsoft.  In just one year's time he's proved his value to Microsoft and is slated to lead Microsoft's strategic thinking efforts for new software development.

Ozzie will webify everything -- finding ways to weave Microsoft's entire product line into the power of the Internet.  "Everything we do should have a presence on the Web," Ozzie told Fortune magazine.

Microsoft started its march to the Web last November when it launched Windows Live, which includes a search service, news and e-mail to compete directly with Google and Yahoo.

Is Microsoft ready for a makeover? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.