How the hell is Steve Ballmer still CEO after 10 years of doing nothing but losing 1/2 the market cap and repeated failures.??? This guy has more resources to work with than most countries and has done absolutely nothing but piss it all away.
I fail to see how they've lost any market cap. Their stock has been trading in the same range for basically the last decade... usually between $24-28. Most of their products and business units are currently excelling.
Because he was a co-founder. He does not view the company as public, but as his company. The shareholders also think the same. I bet Bill also view it as his company.
They hit a wall, they have Windows, Office, and Xbox. Nothing else they were working on was big enough. Also, the only thing they worked on during the Internet boom was IE, and it just does not make them money like Google can by integrating adds with Search. They still make a ton of money, but its basically around the same each quarter, so its more of a dividend stock. You get 2.5% dividend on your money, the growth days of MSFT are in the past.
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wvsboPUjrGc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> PS ... I recommend Paul Allen's book Idea Man, interesting stuff on Microsoft during the 70's and early 80's.