Shawn:
Re: Bill Gates buying NBC
I am not so sure about Bill Gates retiring from Microsoft and starting a completely new company. But then again if he comes to realize (which I believe he may already have), like Steve Jobs of Apple did a few years ago, that his company as a software tool/application supplier is no longer the relevant factor in the computing world, he may very well start a new line of work!
In my humble opinion only, and I think I stated this in a few comments before so my apology for repeating myself, if Microsoft does not change its underlying business model from what I call as strictly a car manufacturer to one that controls the highways cars travel on, it can no longer maintain its historical impressive rate of revenue and earnings growth. Sun's Java technology has manifested in desktop to be a fraction of the computing world as opposed to how it was prior to Java where desktop was the computing world! In one of the presentation I did a couple of months ago at work (and I believe I also stated that in one of my comments before on this thread so again my apology for repeating it ), I used the analogy with the movie Mom guess who is coming for dinner?! in which Sidny Potier tells his father: "...dad you see yourself as a black man, I see myself as just a man.... Similarly in the new computing model Sun (like Sidny Potier) is saying to the computing world "you see software as Windows specific, I see software as just software" written once and run everywhere anytime (whether it is via a TV - Web TV - , home appliance, a PC, NC, NetPc or whatever)! This is a strong statement. Computing world no longer consists of just the desktop market but rather the desktop market is now just a fraction of the computing world!
Now if Sun's Java open technology that has been developed and evolved into a widely accepted set of standards by the computing world makes Microsoft's proprietary desktop only computing technology irrelevant (when looking at the bigger picture), then how can Microsoft maintain its historical growth rate? The answer, in my humble opinion, is in the new shift Microsoft has taken in changing its business model to one that intends to monopolize on where and how the new computing model intends to run the software written once based on Java: The media and communication entities. As an example of this shift please see comments I made a few weeks ago in: techstocks.com
The recent purchase of WebTV, MSNBC, (its rumor to buy CBS), working with Motorola and the McGraw family to put satellites all around the earth to provide a network of uniform communication on the planet earth, etc. are all pointing to the direction of shift in Microsoft's underlying new business strategy.
Now I have no idea if Mr. Gates wants to do it as a separate business entity from Microsoft, or it is going to be part of the transition of Microsoft's business model. My guess is it will be part of Microsoft and not as a separate business entity as speculated by Dvorak artical in PC magazine.
Anyway, this is just my humble opinion.
Regards,
Addi Jamshidi |
