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

To: David Howe who wrote (54191)	12/14/2000 3:14:21 PM
From: David Howe	Respond to of 74651

Here's a list of software companies. siliconinvestor.com If they have earnings, some of the PE's are very high. For example, ADBE ADOBE SYSTEMS has a PE of 55. ARDT ARDENT SOFTWARE has a PE of 172. CHKP CHECK POINT SOFTWARE has a PE of 147. Why shouldn't MSFT get respect similar to these companies? What's with a PE of 32 including PC OS and a PE of 56 if you take out the entire PC OS segment of their business? Dave

To: David Howe who wrote (54191)	12/14/2000 3:41:53 PM
From: Dave	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

MSFT has an excellent record of succeeding in areas they DON'T have a monopoly in, so why wouldn't this be true if the PC OS market suddenly became competitive? MSFT would die quickly without its OS monopoly. I can't think of a single market in which MSFT has succeeded that did not somehow leverage its OS monopoly. Even Office is now a monopoly primarily because (1) MSFT was able to offer computer vendors better Windows pricing if they bundled with Office and didn't offer any competing products and (2) the Office team has access to new versions of the Win32 API long before third-party developers do, and has the power to have changes made to Windows to make Office work better and to make its competitors unstable. If MSFT did not own the OS monopoly, it would lose all of its formidable weaponry against competitive threats like Java and Internet open standards. In short, you can bet that even though consumer OS sales contribute only 10% to MSFT's bottom line, MSFT will fight OS competition with everything it has. Dave