Tom:
Like you, I strongly encourage every S.I reader or participant to read Bill Parish's latest report. While there might be a minuscule point or two with which one might take issue, Bill's commentary is right on the mark.
I got to know Bill earlier this year, when I published much of his severe criticism of Microsoft in my newsletter, after verifying independently the accuracy of his findings. At the time, we were digging into the massive size of the income being generated by several of the tech darlings through the sale of put options against their own stock, when we started to become aware of the fact that MSFT's balance sheet "didn't add up". Bill's work made it crystal clear as to what was going on. Bluntly, I initially could believe neither the staggering amount of cash being salted away by MSFT through this scam, nor that the U.S. government tax rules would allow such a dastardly scheme, but upon investigation, we found Bill's observations to be extremely accurate.
As a result of The Tech Review's publishing of this material, Gretchen Morgensen wrote a hard-hitting article about it in the New York Times. Shortly thereafter, Gretchen and the paper were both subjected to considerable criticism and pressure from MSFT, but to their credit, both the paper and Gretchen stood their ground. Within days, I personally received a rather interesting call from a very high ranking official of MSFT, who proceeded to berate me with respect to the inaccuracy of both the N.Y. Times article as well as the contents of our commentary in the Tech Review. After listening to his tirade, I basically suggested that he go peruse the company's own 10-Q, from which the figures were acquired, and that he quit the bluster and bluff as it doesn't work with those who are independent.
Like Bill, I have been digging rather diligently into MSFT's numbers. As one who has a reasonable degree of familiarity with them, I can verify that he is extremely accurate.
I also want to publicly congratulate Bill for his courage in taking up this battle with the largest and most aggressive company in the U.S. I also admire him immensely for maintaining a polite and gentlemanly style in so doing. Having suffered my own share of arrows from companies that disliked accurate but less-than-flattering criticism of their accounting or business practices that I have published, I know intimately just how nasty their efforts to discredit or "dissuade" (or worse) one from such activity can be. Bluntly, it can get worse than nasty.
Bill deserves much support for both unearthing a complete fraud and for having the courage to call it as it is.
Best, Earlie |
