Post #26,632
1/31/02 8:48:05 AM
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Is Microsoft doomed?
[link|http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47-2057-2060-2101_STO65592,00.html|I don't understand all this hifalutin financial talk]
Excerpt:
For Microsoft, change started arriving in early 2000, when its stock price stopped doubling every year and started to drift.
More change came in the months that followed, as the dot-com economy went from go-go to gone-gone, and the huge pile of cash Microsoft had quietly invested in other companies turned into, well, a small pile of cash.
Then still more change, as more and more big corporate customers decided they were finally satisfied with their Microsoft products - and stopped upgrading.
And yet more change as increasing numbers of consumers, worried about the cooling economy, decided they didn't need new PCs either - and stopped buying.
Along the way, wireless handheld devices (you know, cell phones with screens) became the Next Big Thing - and Microsoft wasn't a player. The Internet turned out to be a great place for shopping but not so popular for buying - while Microsoft had bet heavily on .Net and Passport. And when Microsoft tried to strong-arm its customers into upgrading in lockstep, customers didn't just resist, they slapped back hard - and Microsoft had to back down.
And, oh yeah, Microsoft's appeal to the Supreme Court was denied, and the ruling that Microsoft is a lawbreaking monopolist was pretty much set in stone.
That last one is what the court is worried about now. What Microsoft should be worried about is all the rest.
Microsoft's financial and compensation model depends on a stock price that keeps climbing. Its product sales model depends on customers who keep upgrading. Its planning model depends on being able to control the game and limit change.
In other words, right now, Microsoft's whole business model is broken. Being declared a monopoly and having to face the music is just adding insult to injury.
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html]
Sometimes "tolerance" is just a word for not dealing with things.
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Post #26,636
1/31/02 10:15:58 AM
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Two words...
"Triple Damages"
That is all.
-YendorMike
"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by the skeptics or the cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy
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Post #26,821
2/1/02 8:39:15 AM
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In other words
Microsoft is not doomed at all, they can pay. And if they can't, banks will give them credit, so they can pay.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #26,832
2/1/02 9:23:14 AM
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Consumers are cocooning
at least in the US they are. Which means they are staying at home and not buying very much of new things. Which includes computers and OS upgrades. Many are sticking to their Windows 95/98 machines. Furniture places are going out of business near me, as are some other stores like Service Merchandise. Even Kmart filed for bankruptcy. Why? Because consumers are not consuming as much as they used to.
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #26,834
2/1/02 9:36:58 AM
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Not so sure about KMart
their competitors, Walmart and Target, seem to be doing well. I know I've stopped buying cloths at department stores and go to Walmart instead due to a temporary pay cut. And Walmart is jam packed with people whenever I've been there.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #26,855
2/1/02 11:23:05 AM
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Wrong about KMart.
Bad management, and having their lunch eaten by WalMart, are what ails KMart.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #26,889
2/1/02 2:22:20 PM
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K-Mart...
...may actually be the first documented case of demise cause by ERP and technology solutions.
They were struggling, to be sure...but they started last year early by ripping out old systems and replacing them with the brand new, whiz-bang supply chain systems...whcih they promptly could never get to work properly.
I think the price tag on that stuff was somewhere in the 1.5 billion range.
You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! Laurie Anderson
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #26,941
2/2/02 12:11:11 AM
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K-mart, oh oh!
K-Mart has turned into crap. Their Bluelight.com Free ISP went tits up when they reduced the free online time to 12 hours a month and then to no free ISP at all. But Netzero and Juno beat them in this market.
K-mart does have a spiffy web store, but apparently they must be having inventory and price problems with it? Some items are cheaper in the store.
K-Mart does have the self-checkout lanes, you scan it, you bag it, you pay for it. If not, smile for the security camera above you taking your picture. It is confusing and a lot of times it doesn't work right or scans in the wrong price.
K-Marts inventory database must not be entered right for prices. When they have a sale they should have the sales price in the computer, most of the time they don't. This happens a lot for items on clearance. K-Mart claims to have lowered the prices of thousands of items, yet they must all have multiple sku numbers or something because almost nothing on clearance that I have bought has been the right price on ring-up. Usually they have to send someone back to the isle to check on the price. "Yes Mr. King, apparently you are right, the price was as you thought it was, the computer is wrong. We'll fix that." The next day, I go back, and it still rings up with the old price. It is like they don't care.
Everytime I got to the K-Marts near me, I have to stand in a very long line. This is because they have over half the registers closed down and apparently don't have the staff, or they are back in the back storeroom goofing off or something. It isn't worth saving $5, when I can go to a Wallgreens around the corner and pay $5 more without a wait. Wal*Mart and Target also have this problem. It just ticks me off to have to stand in line for over an hour just to get 12 items or more, and half the registers or more are not being used. This, to me, is bad management not having enough staff members on duty. Don't they run statstics on the sales during the day so they know when the busy hours are?
K-Mart sells enough stuff, but still comes up short? This I am not understanding?
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #26,987
2/2/02 12:55:14 PM
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Standing in line for an hour?
The local K-Mart doesn't have enough customers to keep you waiting that long. :=)
I usually have longer lines at Kroger.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #27,115
2/3/02 9:13:02 PM
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Everybody messes up prices every now and then
My wife pretty much goes to Super Wal-Mart and H-E-B (a Texas grocery chain) for our food and about everything else. Sometimes the Walgreens. Each one has had numerous times where a posted price wasn't honored at the register, and promises to fix it go unfulfilled (like they have a couple of data entry clerks hidden in some back room perhaps?) The worst part is getting a manager or going to the Customer Service counter and having it take way too long to get the problem corrected for the moment.
This is not a K-Mart specific problem.
BConnors
"Prepare for metamorphosis. Ready, Kafka?"
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Post #27,282
2/4/02 6:39:20 PM
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Some more than others
we shop around, and KMart has had this problem more than the other retailers. I am not sure why?
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #27,606
2/6/02 11:15:13 PM
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Guess it's a good thing
that KMart never responded when a recruiter sent them my resume last February when I was looking for a job and they were looking for MIS help.
Ditto for my resumes sent to Enron.
BConnors
"Prepare for metamorphosis. Ready, Kafka?"
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Post #27,618
2/7/02 5:37:06 AM
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Argh big belly-laugh
Most of the work of government does not need to be done.
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Post #27,643
2/7/02 10:08:13 AM
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Who knows
maybe he could have written the program to save the company? ;)
"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
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Post #27,668
2/7/02 1:25:26 PM
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Now that would have been a blue light special
Most of the work of government does not need to be done.
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Post #27,738
2/7/02 9:47:35 PM
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You mentioned Enron.
I caught a lengthy news report about it the other night on SBS. It is beginning to look like Arthur Anderson is at least as culpable. The report pointed out the Congressional Hearing mentioned they were instrumental in an insurance company collapse in Australia. Our largest, in fact.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #27,806
2/8/02 11:49:50 AM
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You mentioned Arthur Anderson.
A couple of days ago, I filled out some claim forms for a class action litigation settlement having to do with a company called Boston Chicken. It is not likely you would hear of it in Oz. Boston Chicken operated restaurants called the Boston Market. The stock was much hyped here in the US. They also had some questionable accounting practices. The company went bankrupt and the residue bought up by McDonalds, the hamburger giant, which continues to operate the restaurants. Of course, the shareholders got screwed.
Anyway, there two defending parties settling this lawsuit - the underwriters (i.e. brokerage houses that initially offered the Boston Chicken stock) and Arthur Anderson.
Do you notice a pattern there?
As a shareholder, one gets to approve the Board of Directors' choice of auditing accounting firms. Never again will I vote for Arthur Anderson.
Alex
"Of course, you realize this means war." -B. Bunny
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Post #27,990
2/10/02 8:52:48 PM
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Interesting.
It is looking like Arthur Anderson is about to get into so much trouble it won't be alive much longer.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #26,943
2/2/02 12:14:55 AM
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Yep.
K-Mart is known around here as The Bad Place For IT Workers.
I was working across the street the day they fired 70% of their IT department (8 years ago? something like that). We watched the cars leaving from their headquarters all day long.
They hired them all back as high-priced consultants a month later.
NO one in their right mind around this area goes to work for K-Mart. Unless, of course, you are a high-priced consultant. :-)
They are well known for never bringing a project to completion. Very shoddy IT management over there.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #26,948
2/2/02 12:32:32 AM
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Aren't furniture stores always "going out of business"?
--
Chris Altmann
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