>Some will say that it's just business. Everyone is entitled to his opinion. I think these qualities are onerous, and I wouldn't invest in the company solely for these reasons.
You're just too emotional. I'm one of those who agree that it is "just business." Like I've said a thousand times, Microsoft isn't a charity organization. Netscape is a threat to them, and they are trying to destroy the threat, not Netscape, per se, but the entire threat that Netscape presents.
And don't think that Netscape isn't asking for it, either....they made it very public last year that they were seeking to render Windows irrelevant. To tell you the truth, if Netscape wasn't this aggressive and well-managed, I wouldn't invest in them.
>Plus, it's a personal challenge to have a benchmark (MSFT) to measure my portfolio performance against. So far, since I've been trading full-time, I've out-performed the benchmark by a satisfactory margin.
Considering the kinds of hyper-growth stocks you buy, you had better outdo a mature MSFT. Do me a favor, though, look to see how far your portfolio has come since March 13, 1986. That is a true benchmark.
>I wouldn't pretend to know what Jim Barksdale really thinks, but if it were my employees and their families hanging in the balance, I wouldn't think Microsoft was "good" based on their practices vs. Netscape. Would you?
You're only looking at Netscape's side of it. What about Microsoft's? If Netscape hurt's Microsoft's business--which is their plan--then there will be a lot of ex-Microsoft employees (who have families) out of work. Right?
>In fact, they've attempted to engineer a trap door under Netscape's feet...
Again, you need to look at this from both perspectives. Netscape is trying their hardest to undermine Microsoft's business. In a very clever (cheap) way--by exploiting the computing world's jealousy of Microsoft, and channeling it right at them. They was that Netscape has been able to win the hearts of the computing world is fantastic. Many a company has tried, but Netscape is the only one who has succeeded. This is quite an achievement. |
