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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (36353)	1/12/2000 11:27:00 PM
From: Thunder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

John F. Dowd: I agree with that (36353). I sure am glad Jesse Berst isn't running MSFT. Would you care to share your thoughts on the hypothetical break up into these three entities? (Growth rates, success,ability to compete, market cap. etc.) Just thinking of it being a possibility makes me noxious, in light of the mounting competition. Regards, Gary Earth to Bill G: Wake Up and Break Up Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk Slap! That's the sound of my cyberslap-upside-the-head-to-Bill Gates. Because he needs to wake up and break up -- before the decision gets taken out of his hands. News reports yesterday indicate the Department of Justice and state attorneys general have concocted a break-up plan for Microsoft. Click for more. Whether the reports are entirely accurate doesn't matter. The legal handwriting is on the wall. Microsoft can futz around and whine. Or take charge of its own destiny. Here's the irony. If Gates implements a break-up strategy now -- and if he does it right -- Microsoft will be better off. Here's why: Microsoft has become too big, too bloated, too territorial. It has brilliant people, but they're stifled by a ponderous corporate structure Three or four leaner, meaner companies could react more quickly to competitors and market trends Microsoft could increase shareholder value by spinning off MSN, its Internet division The most recent government proposal reportedly divides Microsoft into three companies: An operating systems group, an applications group and a services group; the latter would presumably include its Internet division. If I were Bill Gates and looking for a breakup that makes business sense, I'd sort it out this way: Online Operating systems Applications and services But Bill Gates is a stubborn man. It won't surprise me if he continues thumbing his nose at the Justice Department. Insisting he's done nothing wrong. Blathering about his right to innovate? until he finds himself sitting on the sidelines while someone else dismantles his company. Whack! That's the sound of AnchorDesk readers hitting the TalkBack button below to tell me whether they agree. Should Gates make a pre-emptive strike and break up Microsoft himself? Let me know, then jump to my Berst Alerts forum where a discussion is under way. zdnet.com