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

To: ToySoldier who wrote (11647)	10/22/1998 2:05:00 PM
From: Alan Buckley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

[...the OEMs know whats going on but are too scared to make an issue of this for fear that MSFT will bump up the licensing price on the Win98. Talk about blackmail from a monopoly. Tell me that this is good for the industry and economy.] It's good for the industry and economy. Michael Dell's made money hand over fist the last few years, and MSFTs been a good partner to him. He knows the game. I doubt very much he's "too scared". The PC manufacturers are making good money, MSFT is making good money, and consumers are getting more for less. That's exactly how it's supposed to work. You describe charging what the market will bear as "blackmail". The correct term is "business".

To: ToySoldier who wrote (11647)	10/22/1998 2:31:00 PM
From: rudedog	Respond to of 74651

Toy - From what I have read, the OEMs know whats going on but are too scared to make an issue of this for fear that MSFT will bump up the licensing price on the Win98 This is a popular 'urban myth' but has not been reflected in any actual pricing policy that I know about, and I know quite a bit about the MSFT licensing practice. There are just too many ways to get MSFT products to customers where the prices are available publicly. Although the OEM's cut individual deals, the guidelines are pretty cut and dried, you could do it on a spreadsheet. Basically it revolves around minimum purchase commitments to a certain product, the distribution mechanism the OEM wants to use, the level of support MSFT provides with the product, and the term of the agreement. Plug in the numbers and out comes a price. MSFT uses other kinds of incentives and pressure than license pricing to work OEMs. Recently they have been using more carrots than sticks but both are in their arsenal.