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To: 16yearcycle who wrote (15682)	12/30/1997 7:37:00 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Respond to of 24154

Re: MSFT Margins With the explosive growth in sub-$1K PCs this quarter I find it hard to imagine that MSFT will post anything other than robust numbers. Remember, every one of those low price PCs comes with a full-priced OEM Windows 95 license. Moreover, I suspect that consumers saving hundreds on the cost of hardware are likely to spend some of those savings on more software.

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (15682)	12/30/1997 11:05:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Oh, I understand perfectly that Microsoft's margins are secure- with essentially zero cost of production on OEM licenses, they're in good shape, and talk of margins runs into the old divide by zero problem. Intel doesn't have the luxury of zero cost of production. Old Bill Fischofer doesn't have to explain this to me either, though I wonder if he'd like to explain an old post on another thread about how IBM should dump all its stupid old businesses, standardize on NT, and assume its proper role as a support organization for Microsoft. Duke campus, that one I don't get. As for Gates wanting to role everything into the OS, I'd say that's both too shallow and too deep. As I said, before the browser, what got roled into the OS was fairly trivial and mundane. Of course, there's the long standing line about voice and language, but that's looking beyond NT2k. There was also the "content is king" line, aside from the suitably edited Funk and Wagnall's, I'm not sure where Microsoft rules on the content front. "Integrate everything into the OS"- well, it's another line, convenient for the current battle. Most of all, Bill wants to win and rule the world, and he'll do whatever it takes. Including revising Funk and Wagnall's little aside about him, remember? The original print version, published by Funk & Wagnall in 1993, ends a fairly complimentary description of the software mogul with the aside that "he has been known as a tough competitor who seems to value winning in a competitive environment over money." The on-line version in Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia is identical, except the final phrase has been changed to "he is known for his personal and corporate contributions to charity and educational institutions." Such heavy-handed mistakes by Microserfs could yet cost Mr Gates dear. (source on request) Legally, I'd say they're being pretty heavy-handed too, and about as disingenuous as the Encarta revision. We all know how Bill operates, I wish the world at large understood it better, but there seem to be plenty of press ilkoids coming around these days. So, I looked back, and buy now was indeed listed as an alternative strategy, 108 as a potential bottom, not a firm prediction. Microsoft may well be a great investment at the current price, but too much seems to assume leveraging the monopoly and continuation of the death grip thing, and like I said I still don't have a good enough grip on the duality of man thing to both enjoy Microsoft stock appreciation and worry about Bill's world domination at the same time. Unfortunately, I've always been a worry wart. Microsoft certainly has a lot more support on the downside than anybody in the hypercompetitive PC hardware business, aside from the monopoly thing there's the cash hoard waiting to cover future "compensaton funding events", as the financial engineer would say. Sheesh, too many words again, essentially repetitious as usual. I should go search out some other investment opportunities to learn the ropes, because I really can't think clearly about Microsoft in those terms, too many other worries on that front. Cheers, Dan.