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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Madharry who wrote (22499)	11/14/2005 10:58:45 AM
From: Bob Rudd	Respond to of 78748

MSFT: 11/13/05 Barrons excerpt (http://online.barrons.com/article/SB113175482864995376.html): WHYMAN ASSERTS THAT MUCH of what has become the popular wisdom about Microsoft is inaccurate. "There are three big Microsoft myths," he says. "One is that it is just a PC-software company. The facts show that isn't true," with 40% of revenue now coming from outside the core Windows and Office franchises. "The second is that Linux will kill Microsoft. Linux has gone nowhere on the desktop, and on the server is growing at the expense of Unix, not Windows. And the third is the Google myth -- it competes with just 3% of Microsoft's revenues." And now, he adds, Microsoft is set up for its biggest product cycle in a decade. And that's no myth.<End quote> MSFT will also benefit from Anti-piracy initiatives which could boost earnings by increasing the amount of software that's paid for - 25% of Windows in US and 36% worldwide isn't paid for...a $39B untapped stream which, if converted to revenues, would be nearly pure profit....and that's just Windows...Office, etc would increase that potential. No way they'll get ever get 100% of that, but they could get a chunk as they gradually tighten down. Also, MSFT has shown willingness to return a generous portion of it's enormous cashflow to shareholders thru buybacks and dividends instead of stupid acquisitions and diWORSifications [Peter Lynch word coinage for getting into unrelated businesses].