You come across as a MSFT spy...so I'll answer this way.
heh heh. Paranoid are we? Well, let me assure you, I am not an MSFT spy. I'm just a stockholder who has to sell a hundred or so shares in the next few months (ahh, taxes...) which gives me higher-than-normal short-term interest in the stock.
And thanks for your comments. When I asked about msn.com, I wasn't even thinking of the dial-up subscriber part of the business. That looks to me like an accidental remnant of a failed business strategy from back in the days when Microsoft thought the internet was insignificant and a mirror image AOL's then all-private net was the wave of the future. I figure MSFT would benefit greatly from selling that off to the highest bidder. (Since WorldCom's UUNet provides the infrastructure for the subscribers, they'd be a likely purchaser, but a good bidding war with AT&T would be great.)
What I was more interested in was the pure internet play of msn.com which includes the portal, MSNBC.com, hotmail, LinkExchange, CarPoint, Expedia, MoneyCentral, Gaming Zone, WomenCentral, Slate, Sidewalk, and more. That's an extraordinary list of web properties. It would be very valuable, despite its huge losses, as an independent company, but seems to add little value to MSFT stock.
I think that would change if the properties were spun off into a separate tracking stock or an independent company with MS retaining significant ownership (maybe in parnership with GE/NBC?).
Failing that, I figure a flurry of big buys in the next few months might make institutions recognize the hidden value within the MSFT monster. msn.com could go vertical and add new things like (and I emphasize like since there's no sign any of these particular stocks are on the msn radar) PPOD the online grocer, or an online drug store, or even a hard-to-swallow biggie like cnet. (ZDnet would be more difficult since they publish so many magazines that cover MS.). They could go horizontal and pull in something like their Seattle neighbor GNET and get this board added to MoneyCentral along with portal, search, and gaming expansion.
Those particular companies probably won't be the ones that do the deal, but big-bang buys like that might be enough to get folks looking for internet "plays" to jump onto MSFT. |
