Falling Microsoft Income Endangers Yahoo Bid

Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, points out a new wrinkle to Microsoft's pursuit of Yahoo. The most recent quarterly results, which saw Microsoft's earnings drop by 6% from the previous year (revenue from Windows alone was down 24%), have caused the stock to dip. This has reduced the value of the cash-and-stock offer from its original $44B to something nearer $40B. Yahoo, of course, has maintained all along that the original offer was lowball. A business professor is quoted: "Whatever leverage [Microsoft] built up in the last few days could be slipping away."

Re:wrong wrong wrong*

[lightversusdark]

Whoosh!

And don't try the old asterisk in the subject line trick - we can see you're not a subscriber!

dumb, ill-informed sarcasm

[nguy]

Why do you have to drag this bullshit sarcasm into this discussion?

For the record, both Yahoo! and Microsoft have open positions that they have a hard time filling with qualified people (so do Google, IBM, and most other high tech companies):

http://research.yahoo.com/Job_Opportunities [yahoo.com]

http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/jobs/fulltime/default.aspx [microsoft.com]

The H-1b caps indiscriminately keep companies from filling those jobs; they keep out US educated Ph.D.'s, they keep out foreign educated Ph.D.'s, and they are a huge problem for industry and US competitiveness. Even if there's some abuse of H-1b's, capping H-1b's to prevent that abuse is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. If those Ph.D.'s can't come to the US, they work abroad and found their startups there, pay their taxes there, and create jobs there.

So, stop that stupid sarcasm and get some of the facts, OK?

Re:Clearly caused by H-1b limits

[anandsr]

Actually it will be very easy to reduce the demand of H1-B visas. Just stop them from being slave laborers to the companies importing them. This can be done by just allowing them to switch jobs, and allowing them to apply for Green Cards without sponsorship.

Currently the companies hold the H1-B visa holders by a tight leash because they can't switch jobs once Green card is applied. Also they can't switch jobs in the early years.

If both these restrictions are removed, companies will not be able to afford to pay their employees less than the fair market value. And then the local people will be able to compete more easily. Companies will not be able to use H1-Bs as a source of cheap employment.

So ask your senators to remove restrictions that cause H1-Bs to be looked as second class employees. Let them be treated at the level they merit, and you will not lose out on jobs.

Re:Downward spiral?

[miffo.swe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data [wikipedia.org]

Maybe we should thank heavens that Microsoft went towards the PC world?

Re:Windows revenue dropped 24% ??!?!!!

[iamthelaw]

No drop. It's an illusion. This quarter last year MS recognized revenue from upgrade sales of Vista that had not yet been realized. The amount of growth was normal and expected; MS met earnings expectations which accounted for the difference.

Re:Revenue from Windows down?

[VertigoAce]

In November & December 2006, we deferred $1.67 billion in revenue for Windows Vista and Office 2007 into the 3rd quarter. This makes it hard to compare 2nd & 3rd quarters year over year, unless you look at it with the revenue moved back to the 2nd quarter. Once you take this into account, the results for this quarter were roughly what you would expect.