On 23 Oct 2003, D. Cooper Stevenson wrote:
> All, > > Shares of Microsoft common stock are down today on the heels of their Q4 > earnings report: > > http://sec.thomsonfn.com/sec/SecProd?pid=MzgwYlhOdVAkWQEQUALSTOEQUALSTO&transform=result&type=results&doc_type=REGST&doc_dcn=03948319&cont_format=HTML&cont_qualifier=C&doc_product=E&viewer=N#r4 > > Here are a few highlights: > > "As a result of challenges to our business model, sales of our products > may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for our > products, and our revenues and operating margins may consequently > decline. Since our inception, our business model has been based upon > customers agreeing to pay a fee to license software developed and > distributed by us." "And by us only." But now some of those pesky customers are getting wise. > > Also... > > "In recent years, there has been a growing challenge to the commercial > software model, often referred to as the Open Source model. Under the > Open Source model, software is produced by loosely associated groups of > unpaid programmers, and the resulting software and the intellectual > property contained therein is licensed to end users at substantially no > cost. The most notable example of Open Source software is the Linux > operating system. While we believe that our products provide customers > with significant advantages in security and productivity, and generally > have a lower total cost of ownership than Open Source software, the > popularization of the Open Source model continues to pose a significant > challenge to our business model, including recent efforts by proponents > of the Open Source model to convince governments worldwide to mandate > the use of Open Source software in their purchase and deployment of > software products. To the extent the Open Source model gains increasing > market acceptance, sales of our products may decline, we may have to > reduce the prices we charge for our products, and revenues and operating > margins may consequently decline." Translation: "We might actually have to compete for the first time since we killed off that other browser thingy." So they're finally starting to admit that we're hitting them where it hurts. ;-) Phil _______________________________________________ EuG-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug