It's hurting both recruitment and retainment. They did a split on the way down (an unusual action) in hopes people would see their stock as undervalued and buy them back up. That didn't happen. They issued a divident so their stock would be acceptable to institutions that buy only dividend paying stocks in hopes of broadening purchase. That didn't work either. They are no longer seen as a growth stock because they've stayed in a narrow trading range for years, and that helps keep it in that range.

Windows and Office both yield over 80% profit, but their markets are saturated and "upgrades" aren't doing well. Give those two items away and they will have no profit at all because MSN is breaking even and everything else is bleeding money. Their billions in reserves would evaporate quickly trying to maintain such a large and expensive structure as this company has become without profit.

A company that weak will control nothing. They are in a precarious balancing act, and if they can't get a lot of profitable new product out the door soon, that stock trading range will be broken to the downside. They are in trouble (for the long term) and they know it, but the public doesn't know that yet.