Elop Favored By Gamblers As Microsoft's Next Chief Executive 196
PolygamousRanchKid writes "A gambling website's favorite as Microsoft Corp.'s next chief executive officer is Stephen Elop, the Nokia CEO who has presided over a 62 percent decline in market value. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, has 5-to-1 odds to be hired as Steve Ballmer's replacement, according to Ladbrokes, the U.K.-based gambling operator. He leads a pool including internal candidates Kevin Turner and Julie Larson-Green and outsiders like Apple CEO Tim Cook — a 100-to-1 dark horse."
Name game (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like a publicity stunt to me. It's close enough to Elon Musk that they can cash in on some of the buzz around 'hyperloop' and "isn't he the Tesla guy?" and "doesn't he build rockets?" to make them sound new and edgy and relevant.
Re:Name game (Score:4, Funny)
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Elop sounds too close to "Flop", if we're only considering by name.
More interesting, backwards it's Pole
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Elop sounds too close to "Flop", if we're only considering by name.
More interesting, backwards it's Pole
Did he used to do film work in the San Fernando Valley? I think I recall the name, "Backward Pole" in some credits... but it might have been "BackDoor Pole" instead,,,
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Every time I hear the name "Elop", it makes me think of QWOP [foddy.net].
Re:Name game (Score:4, Funny)
They're used to it , having someone who didn't loose billions at the helm might confuse them.
They need someone to sink their ship really deep in the abyss and he seems to be fully qualified.
Hope we see each other at the chapter 11 hearings. Keep an eye out on the upper floor windows for falling furniture.
Fuzz
Re:Name game (Score:5, Funny)
Elon Musk
Every time I see his name, I think what a cool name for mens cologne.
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I misread the other candidate, Julie Larson-Green, as Julie Green Lantern. I think that would be an even better publicity generating name.
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Microsoft would win a ribbon for that pick.
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Julie Larson-Green looks like she went through a botched Botox treatment.
And this is relevant to this discussion how, exactly?
Well, it beats the hell out of me how boards pick CEOs. If Elop's in the running, then competence isn't the qualification for the job. Why not choose based on shoe size or willingness to undergo inadvisable cosmetic procedures? Gotta winnow this stack of resumes somehow.
Re:Name game (Score:5, Interesting)
How are CEOs judged. Honestly.. I don't know. It seems to an outsider like me that names come up again and again even after they slam corporations to the ground.
Carly Fiorina came up as a candidate. Why? Everything she touches turns to shit and H.P. barely survived her.
There is a cult of personality around these people that need to be broken up.
Re:Name game (Score:5, Informative)
Shareholders judge CEOs according to how stock prices have moved and how dividends have been released. These are usually the guys you have to please, over the term of a couple of years, to keep your job.
An objective observer would more likely judge a CEO by the stability and growth of the company over the course of half a decade or more. It's not always about the money. Some great private company owners don't care much about bringing in a corporate profit, but rather they just like what they're doing and want to pay their employees and the bills. (But of course, once you hold a majority share in a company that is worth billions of dollars, it becomes VERY hard to resist an IPO.)
There's also a big difference between a startup that is still on its way up vs. an established company. A company with its roots firmly planted, in my opinion, should value a CEO with the ability to continue pushing the company forward when market conditions provide overbearing competition and when economic times do not play well to the good or service being provided. Sometimes this means reducing cash in the bank and moving fiercely into related markets that are on the upswing.
Re:Name game (Score:5, Interesting)
A company that is stagnating basically needs to start a square 1 and re inject that creativity. It was always said that Paul Allen would have taken M$ in other directions to Bill Gates and Paul Allen was the real creative person behind M$, just got squeezed out by the hostility of Ballmer and Gates combined. So get Paul back in to set new directions for the two parts of the company M$ Office/Windows and MSN/gaming. They can leave Ballmer at M$ Office/Windows to squeeze the life out of it.
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No. Making a stable profit is a niche that should be encouraged. Nothing has the ability to grow forever.
If the company is stagnating, it becomes quite important to identify the reason. If it's because of market saturation, then KEEP DOING IT RIGHT. Return profits to the share-holders, if you're a corporation. But be sure to keep your eyes open for a better way of doing whatever it is that is your specialty. But be very careful that in doing so you don't stop DOING IT RIGHT.
Change for the sake of chan
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Shareholders judge CEOs according to how stock prices have moved and how dividends have been released.
That's a rather circular definition because stock prices move according to what other shareholders think about the stock, not what the CEO is doing as such. Reality is that the market is a moving target and shareholders are often rather clueless as to whether the CEO's performance has actually contributed to or detracted from the company's stock performance, like if you were producing SUVs you simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time and any CEO's sales would tank - but more or less because of the C
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That's a rather circular definition because stock prices move according to what other shareholders think about the stock, not what the CEO is doing as such.
That is correct but nevertheless CEOs usually are judged by the returns to shareholders. Share price is at best an indirect measure of performance and in the short run can be completely uncorrelated with actual performance. But since the shareholders are the owners of the company, share price + dividends are ultimately what they (usually) care about and those are the measure shareholders are going to evaluate management performance against. It is a HIGHLY imperfect measure and frequently unfairly rewards
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Actually, this is where the current company governance rules are a scandal. In most companies, the board and CEO own a tiny slice of the company, yet the shareholders have little say about critical issues.
Shareholders own the company (Score:2)
In most companies, the board and CEO own a tiny slice of the company, yet the shareholders have little say about critical issues.
Think of it a little like congress. Most of the time the citizens are too divided to force their leaders to act one way or another. However on those occasions when the citizens speak with a coherent voice then their leaders are forced into action. Substitute citizens for shareholders and the result is the same. The shareholders own the company and can force management to do whatever they want. Too often though the shareholders are too disinterested to really effect significant change. Most shareholder
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Actually, no. Mostly all the shareholders can do is vote for a new board and hope that the new board forces management to do what they want.
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Re:Name game (Score:5, Funny)
>To paraphrase "1984," some shareholders are more equal than others.
Right author, wrong book: Animal Farm.
Right. That would be Orson Wells. The original poster was probably confusing the shareholders with Morlocks, from one of his other books - The Time Machine (as in the movie, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme).
Re:Name game (Score:4, Insightful)
That is the beauty of getting into the CEO club. The boards of directors of all the other big companies are made up of C level executives, so once someone is in the club they can all vote for each other and guarantee themselves a giant paycheck. Even if they completely run a company into the dirt, they are guaranteed that their buddies in the C-Club will take care of them at their next position; because they will do the same on the boards they serve on.
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It's not limited to the top position either, it's everywhere. This is
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Heh, mentioning Carly gave me a depressing yet fascinating train of thought.
The cynic in me says....put her in. Watch MS stock decline. Buy. Force her out. Stock jumps 20%. Sell. You just made eleventy billion dollars
If you're a wall street power exec with influence of the MS board....its brilliant
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Heh, mentioning Carly gave me a depressing yet fascinating train of thought.
The cynic in me says....put her in. Watch MS stock decline. Buy. Force her out. Stock jumps 20%. Sell. You just made eleventy billion dollars
If you're a wall street power exec with influence of the MS board....its brilliant
No, you have to add another "sell" step if you're an insider (or have access to one), right before you install the Carly.F virus, you sell (or do a buy-write cover). This gives you the proceeds to do the next steps without a major loss.
Yes, pretty please (Score:5, Funny)
An expert in tanking companies at the helm of Microsoft? I can't wait.
Re:Yes, pretty please (Score:5, Funny)
The only thing that would make it better is if he were to bring in some superstars like Carly Fiorina and every Yahoo CEO from Jerry Yang onward to fill out the executive team...
Re:Yes, pretty please (Score:4, Interesting)
if elop goes, does nokia hire back whole jolla team and we get great phones with open os finally ?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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I want to see Nokia come back for revenge and eventually acquire Microsoft.
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One company I was at was working at hired a new CEO from a sister company. That other company had been doing very poorly and eventually had been bought out by its employees. Ie, a failed CEO, who was now our new CEO. One of the press releases about our new CEO said in what appeared to be a boilerplate statement "Let's hope that Mr $X can do for $Y Systems what he did for $Z Corp."
Wouldn't it be funny (Score:2)
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H-1B1 only applies to Chilean and Singaporean nationals. Since he's Canadian, they can just list him as "computer analyst" and he can work in the US under TN status for a period of 1 year, renewable indefinitely.
Steve Wozniak (Score:2)
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I think that would be the equivalent of taking a 18 wheeler going at 80mph and slamming it into reverse.
Face it, Steve's vision of what technology should be isn't even compatible with ANYONE at Apple anymore.
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Burning Platforms v2? (Score:5, Funny)
I can picture it now...
Elop gets in. He sits down, and writes a memo about how the company is sitting on a burning platform and needs to change or die. He'll then adopt a bold strategy of switching the entire company over to... what? QNX maybe?
Considering his track record, I find it hard to believe anybody thinks this is a good idea.
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Nah, he's going to get booted and he successor will ditch Windows Phone.
Then he'll end up back at the mothership in Redmond as some other type of executive. Given how badly he's hurt Nokia, I wonder if the Microsoft board would really let him be CEO. They can afford someone good, why the hell would they choose Elop?
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Nah, he's going to get booted and he successor will ditch Windows Phone.
Then he'll end up back at the mothership in Redmond as some other type of executive. Given how badly he's hurt Nokia, I wonder if the Microsoft board would really let him be CEO. They can afford someone good, why the hell would they choose Elop?
Dunno. Why the hell have they done most of the things they've done in the past few years?
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You don't need to assume. There are escalating payments with their deal. They basically got the first few years without payment but they have increasing sales goals where they have agreed to by X number of licenses later regardless of whether they sell the phones or not. MS gave Nokia several billion and they will get back every dime plus interest, termination of the contract likely requires a balloon payment of the whole thing immediately.
Nokia is hooked like an Anchor to MS, they will not be getting out o
Kevin Turner = massive exodus (Score:4, Interesting)
Kevin Turner, Lisa Brummel, and Amy Hood are all despised within Microsoft... they are Ballmer yes-people and Lisa Brummel is directly responsible for destroying any shred of productive culture there. They all need to go.
The employees want Satya Nadella or maybe Tony Bates... although many say it has to come from the outside... Sinofsky ;-)
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2013/08/steve-ballmer-is-going-to-frickin.html [blogspot.com]
Re:Kevin Turner = massive exodus (Score:5, Interesting)
What the employees want does not matter even a little.
The current management put Ballmer in charge, they are going to select another Ballmer not someone who will change their culture.
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Don't count on it. I think they're seeing a massive cultural problem that is finally starting to hurt the bottom line and they want to do something about it. I don't know if they go the direction the employees want but I think they'll go a non Ballmer direction.
Re:Kevin Turner = massive exodus (Score:4, Insightful)
I respectfully disagree. Ballmer represents their own culture, any change would be admitting they were wrong. I fully expect MS to shrink over the next several decades because of this. I can't think of any companies that have ever survived and recovered from that kind of MBA infection.
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"MBA infection"...that's just too good...made my whole day.
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The current management put Ballmer in charge, they are going to select another Ballmer not someone who will change their culture.
If that was the case, why would Ballmer be leaving? I don't think that he is doing what he is doing badly, the problem is that he is doing the wrong things. Replacing him with someone who does the same things, maybe slightly better or slightly worse, isn't going to help one bit.
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Not at all, but I don't run Microsoft. Those kinds of folks sure as hell do. They practically invented perma-temp.
Probably not (Score:5, Insightful)
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No, coming back as Microsoft CEO was the deal he was given when he was sent to Nokia to destroy all its value.
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No, coming back as Microsoft CEO was the deal he was given when he was sent to Nokia to destroy all its value.
This seems likely; I was on record here saying to expect an acquisition, or at least an IP buy-out, after it had its value devastated - but I still haven't seen what Microsoft could do differently than Nokia is doing to actually succeed with a Windows phone.
Re:Probably not (Score:4, Interesting)
No, coming back as Microsoft CEO was the deal he was given when he was sent to Nokia to destroy all its value.
Considering how its value is up like 100% from the bottom, and likely to keep slowly creeping upwards along with WP market share in the short term at least, then if Elop's mission was to drive the value to the ground only, it failed.
But don't worry, there's plenty of room for conspiracies still. Elop's mission could have been to install WP as a 3rd ecosystem as quickly as possible, no matter the cost (to Nokia's shareholders), and accepting a big risk of total failure (of Nokia as a company) and continuing irrelevancy of Windows in mobile space. The way Symbian was murdered certainly fits this theory.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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They should do #1 anyway. Stardock already figured out how to run Metro apps on the desktop, and having that option would dramatically help adoption in corporate settings.
In fact they should do #2 as well. The RT simply doesn't have the hardware specs or market clout to compete at the same price as the iPad.
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What galls people is they have to add aftermarket software just to make the Win8 UI acceptable. It's like getting a brand new car, and having to take it to a garage so they can make the left pedal work as the brake and the right pedal work as the accelerator again.
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But you only need one pedal. you are not driving it right.
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"alternatives to protocols like AirPlay that are open, documented and patent-free for"...
Sorry, I know this is forthright, but this makes me giggle. This is asking much more than the simple sentence here indicates. This is a difference in corporate culture. Culture is the most difficult thing to change in every organization.
Not that I don't agree with you...
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The problem with open protocols (from many corporations point of view) is that they open you up to competition. Conpanies like Microsoft and Apple don't want competition.
Too Many Problems (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Release Windows 8.2 with the start menu fully restored, Metro apps able to run on the desktop mode and Metro only a primary UI option on touch screen PCs unless the user configures otherwise (either way should still be an option).
2. Release Windows RT 2 tablet in $200 and $300 32gb and 64gb options with full Microsoft Office. Microsoft needs to just flood the market with low cost, Kindle-like Windows tablets that'll run any traditional Windows app recompiled for ARM (another restriction that needs to go from Windows 8).
3. Attack the living room not just with the XBox One, but alternatives to protocols like AirPlay that are open, documented and patent-free for other vendors to implement. Microsoft can isolate Apple even more by returning to its roots of being of one of the most open big vendors in the industry.
I love quick fixes. The problem with Microsoft is the the company. We are asking why an army of clever; highly qualified and paid individuals could release so many failures...obvious failures before release.
Lets look at your fixes(Lipstick on a Pig) you address the unpopular Metro Interface failure, by having it there as a kludge; It was never about a start menu it was about creating an ecosystem with a consistent interface so they could force themselves into the mobile market(They use the word "ecosystem"), and cash in on the lockdown (store and hardware) to Microsoft product and services. The answer wasn't to use the advantages over mobile (10x power and screen real estate, good input, massive storage) they simply dumbed down a computer to a poor tablet. How about Microsoft accept its in competition and compete by producing the Best Desktop ever.
Then you bring up cost. Microsoft walk around with 70% gross margins while its partners do with 10%-20%, and not only is office unwanted they also charge for that too. Traditional Windows Apps do not work on a tablet. No wonder the devices are considered overprices and its partners are turning away. How about Microsoft change their business stratergy?
Bill Gates might have got into the living room with the console, but seriously its a $500, £430 in the UK and 500 Euros console (ignoring its anti-gamer launch) it is going against a $35 Device Chromecast. that already has an alternative to Airplay and works for iOS and Android. How about Microsoft stop selling hardware but sell software...hold on did Andriod just get another 6 Consoles.
The bottom line is a few quick fixes...and these aren't are not going to fix the problem.
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0. Listen to your fucking customers.
If they'd just keep this in mind, the rest of the list (and much more) falls in place naturally.
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HuH?
1 - refund everyone's money that bought Windows 8 and reinstate work on Windows 7 updates and bugfixes. Start working on windows 9 with business use in mind first and foremost.
2 - when it's ready for testing, get COMPANIES with REAL USERS to test it and submit useability reports and feedback.
3 - LISTEN TO AND ACT ON THAT FEEDBACK.
4 - profit.
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The need someone who innovates less! (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's face it, Microsoft has recently seen a huge amount of innovation.
- a completely new UI for Windows
- gambling a couple billion dollars on Windows RT
- locking down the XBox with draconian DRM
These were HUGE gambles, Ballmer had HUGE stones. They were really betting the company on this dynamic new strategic path.
It just so happens that this is innovation that really fscking sucked. They need a CEO who recognizes that Microsoft cannot innovate. It is not something that the company does well.
Microsoft's board can not be that stupid. (Score:2)
Elop is a moron. Why in the world would they put a moron in charge of Microsoft?
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Elop is a moron. Why in the world would they put a moron in charge of Microsoft?
Why would that be any different than anything else they've done recently?
prediction: you heard it here.... (Score:2)
Cook from Apple becomes MS's new CEO.
Iger from Disney takes over the Apple spot.
And the musical chairs continue...
Break the company up (Score:4, Insightful)
And I don't mean for "waah waah antitrust" reasons, I mean because I honestly think we'd see a hell of a lot more innovation in more productive directions. A parent company might hold majority shareholdings in the subsidiaries, but daily operations (including pretty much all strategic thinking) should come from the individual companies Microsoft would be split into, not from the big hulking brute that is Microsoft today.
The idea being that
Off the top of my head, you'd wind up with:
- Home Entertainment. Gets the XBox. Without the "mustn't play nicely with others" mentality coming from the top, they could license DAAP and integrate with Apple, maybe use the xbox as some sort of media centre that can stream to devices around the house.
- Operating systems. Gets Windows - both client and server. Because it's now effectively a separate company, they can build stronger relationships with others - the concern that there's a conflict of interest somewhere mostly evaporates.
- Enterprise Software. Gets SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, maybe IIS. Without the "must integrate everything 15 ways from Sunday and run only on Windows" push coming from HQ, there's scope to openly publish integration mechanisms.
- Productivity Software: Gets Office, Visio etc. Opens the door for publishing an API that allows third party companies wanting to build a Sharepoint-alike and integrate just as seamlessly as Sharepoint does. (Or does Sharepoint just use WebDAV?)
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Clippy (Score:2)
What are the odds for Clippy? He (it?) would make a great CEO!
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Statistics and logic is hard it appears.
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which are laughably high odds. More like a million to one. Seriously, under what circumstances could you imagine Tim Cook, CEO of possibly the worlds most profitable and well loved company accepting a job offer to be CEO of a smaller, shittier company that everyone hates and represents everything that Apple hates about technology? Maybe if he was fired from Apple in the next year for doing something horrible but Microsoft was still desperate enough to want to hire him.
$100 million a year, with a ten year contract. That would be convincing :-)
I think before starting he would ask the board: How easy is it to fire any managers? And I mean fire without paying them any money?
If it is easy, then he might be able to turn this ship around. Give every executive two weeks time to produce a plan how to make their department work much better for the benefit of the company, not for the benefit of that manager. For every executive, let two subordinates make exactly the same plan.
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Apple has lost half it's value since Tim Cook took over, it's since regained some now that the sharks (Icahn) are circling the pool waiting to see if they can profit off the decline. It's also seen two quarters with a decline in profits under him also.
In this respect he's actually damaged Apple far quicker and far more severely than Ballmer managed to damage Microsoft when he took over.
But despite this I'd argue Cook would actually be better suited to Microsoft. Apple sells cutting edge innovative products
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Completely wrong. Apple is worth much more than it was when he took over.
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But most of that can be attributed to the lag effect. The point is simply that Cook hasn't sustained, or even managed to come close to holding it even close to that peak.
Ultimately under Jobs it was on an upwards trend, and whilst no one expected Cook to be able to keep up the pace (no one could) one would at least expect him not to oversee a 50% decline from that peak.
Or in other words Cook could've simply not turned up to work after Job's resignation and it'd still have had the momentum from Jobs - it wou
CEO performance vs stock price (Score:3)
Ultimately under Jobs it was on an upwards trend, and whilst no one expected Cook to be able to keep up the pace (no one could) one would at least expect him not to oversee a 50% decline from that peak.
It wouldn't be hard to argue that Apple was 50% overvalued at its peak. Furthermore the stock right now is sitting right in the middle of its 52 week range and the long term trend puts it right about where it currently sits. Take 2012 out of the mix and the stock price [google.com] is right on the trajectory it was on between 2009-2011.
But if Cook was doing a good job then it would've kept increasing, or plateaued or declined slightly.
CEO performance and stock price are only loosely correlated, particularly in the short term.
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iHaters do not need logic, please.
Re:Tim Cook? (Score:5, Insightful)
Stock price doesn't mean diddley squat. GE is immense and their stock price isn't great but they do very well in their markets.
And this visionary thing is overrated, Apple isn't going to produce a groundbreaking device in a new market for them every three years. No company can does that.
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I take it you're just not totally impressed with the Darth Trashcan [mashable.com]?
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I actually agree that stock price isn't the greatest of metrics for what it's worth but what metric do you suggest? I think profit growth is probably the most sensible but Cook has faltered there the last couple of quarters too and Ballmer has maintained healthy growth at Microsoft so by this metric would be deemed a highly successful CEO. Sales figures are up under Cook but marketshare is down. Customer satisfaction is strong in Apple products but is it higher under Cook than it was under the era that coul
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Cook's been in charge...what...about 2 years? Apple was destined to have reduced marketshare ever since Samsung and their fellow travelers decided to ape them at just about every turn. That had nothing to do with Jobs and/or Cook. In fact, you could argue that Jobs saw it coming by throwing sueballs around. Let's give Cook a bit more time. It takes years to develop a new product, and if Jobs had so much in the pipeline, Apple would have coughed up a new one by now. Maybe it was the iWatch, but as soon as th
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The current stock market is basically opposed to prudent corporate management, it mainly rewards short term gains and penalizes long term thinking. Ie, they want stock growth rather than regular dividends.
Meanwhile "vision" is basically what happens when you see people who aren't there and hear voices no one else can hear. In the old days they used to lock up up if you had visions for your own protection.
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Yeah? Take a look at my comment history and then try to call me a MS apologist.
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.... who also seems to have a humour bypass.
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You might want to keep up with the news... You really don't want to be a stale iHater. Makes you look more stupid(er).
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/08/03/apple-is-once-again-the-worlds-most-valuable-compa.aspx [fool.com]
iLover vs iHaters (Score:2)
You might want to keep up with the news... You really don't want to be a stale iHater.
The rise in stock price is though a buy back of its own shares, and if you bought shares on the low side you made a good chunk of change. Whatever you think of that. Its not the same as from new technology or even better current technology, or even buying it. The lack of these things causing the drop in the first place. Its just share price manipulation, not innovation; not new products; not sales
The bottom line is we are waiting on September the 10th, and then only to find out the price of the cheap iphone
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The rise in stock price is though a buy back of its own shares, and if you bought shares on the low side you made a good chunk of change. Whatever you think of that. Its not the same as from new technology or even better current technology, or even buying it. The lack of these things causing the drop in the first place. Its just share price manipulation, not innovation; not new products; not sales
Actually... the stock market is deeply irrational. Apple going above $700 was irrational. Apple dropping to $400 was irrational. Right now around $500 Apple is more where it should be, but the reason (share buyback) is again irrational.
If you think about it, spending a billion dollars to buy back shares means that the company has now fewer shares, so each shareholder would own a slightly larger part of the company, but on the other hand the company is now worth a billion dollar less. If the share price h
The Two Steves (Score:2, Insightful)
He is like Mr 4%, honestly, Steve is a huge improvement on him!
Windows Phone may never hit 4%, and they are both called Steve.
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Uh, WP has already broken 4%. Living a few months in the past, are we?
Microsoft CEO not Nokia (Score:2)
Here is hoping the next CEO hires the Jolla and Neo900(N900 based GTA04 mod OpenMoko upgrade system board) team and they get back to making amazing hardware with a great OS.
Then I wake up...
This is about replacing the Microsoft CEO not Nokia CEO. As much as we talk about smartphones here Elops most criminal cut was Meltemi a featurephone OS aimed at low hardware.
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Here is hoping the next CEO hires the Jolla and Neo900(N900 based GTA04 mod OpenMoko upgrade system board) team and they get back to making amazing hardware with a great OS. Then I wake up...
This is about replacing the Microsoft CEO not Nokia CEO. As much as we talk about smartphones here Elops most criminal cut was Meltemi a featurephone OS aimed at low hardware.
If Elop does move back to Microsoft, Nokia would then need a replacement CEO, no?
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Here is hoping the next CEO hires the Jolla and Neo900(N900 based GTA04 mod OpenMoko upgrade system board) team and they get back to making amazing hardware with a great OS.
Then I wake up...
This is about replacing the Microsoft CEO not Nokia CEO. As much as we talk about smartphones here Elops most criminal cut was Meltemi a featurephone OS aimed at low hardware.
If Elop does move back to Microsoft, Nokia would then need a replacement CEO, no?
No the entire reason Elop has gone to work for Nokia was to get it ready for a Microsoft takeover. Once He return to his home company he will take over nokia, giving Microsoft a mobile company and lots more patents for the war chest.
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This could bring them back from the grave, specially if whoever replaces him on nokia take a hint and dumps windows as phone OS, their main alternatives would be android or, well, back to meego or one of its childrens (sailfish, tizen, etc).
And that could be the final nail on the coffin of Windows 8, and with Elop as CEO could play again the burning platform game and be the end of Windows.
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Hear, hear!! If Elop could to do MS what he's done to Nokia, I'd be a happy camper.
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Well.... I guess Elop would be fine but how does he feel about developers, developers, developers, developers?
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Gates wasn't stupid? This is the man who built MS's sclerotic culture that made them the powerhouse of innovation they are today. And there was nothing stopping Billy from telling Ballmer that smartphones were real and that Apple wasn't to be taken lightly. He could have realized that the tech was finally available for tablets but somehow this never got communicated to Ballmer. And he might have realized that Windows 8 was something only marketing executive could love, but that must have gotten lost in tran
Ship has sailed... (Score:2)
Windows 8 is the best OS on the market today....the Lumia phones are solid and most of you zealots
Ironically zealot implies some kind of blind fanaticism irrespective of the facts. This topic is about Ballmer being pushed (stabbed in the front by Bill) because of 5 quarters of PC sales drops, and being invisible in mobile. On a side note you should have listened to you professor Linux won :)