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

To: Shea Jones who wrote (21582)	4/25/1999 10:37:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Shea Jones, I would not be surprised if Microsoft did read posts here. There are some related posts as well like-- MSFT vs DOJ; MSFT IE vs. Navigator; MSFT the Evil Empire; MSFT vs Sun. It is a great way to find out what the "averaging educated AND/OR rich Joe" is thinking and what his opinions are. Almost all people on these boards are investors or some sort of experts in certain fields. In addition, the members here cover different adult age categories. I bet there are so many ideas floating these different threads that some of their planners can review the thread as part of a brain storming session. My understanding is that SI is the best stock chat. Therefore, they can determine what the public perception of the company is in addition to getting some ideas. By now they know that legal arguments are not sufficient when defending a case. Their smart people did not realize this before. You have to evaluate how much is lost in public support. Look at all those little lawsuits that have come to light after the company took a beating at the hands of David Boies. I am not an expert but I always felt that what they would have given up in a settlement before the trial was insignificant to the success of the company. It was loved by the general public at that time and that had helped in getting more wider acceptance of its software. The product did not even have to be that good in the beginning but the end user knew that it would be improved. Now a part of that dislike which may have developed among the consumer---is going to hurt the company's sales. It will still grow like crazy but the trial has given the competition a jump start. However, in the end MSFT will still dominate but it will be more difficult. IMHO.

To: Shea Jones who wrote (21582)	4/26/1999 8:43:00 AM
From: John F. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Dear Shea: The post was indeed tongue in cheek but one day I did get a response from some fellow high up in the food chain of MSFT regarding the anti-trust matter and the GM -auto-radio metaphor. I think, as tech points out, that MSFT would be foolish not to pay attention to the ideas that are available from the net. Certainly the ideas that emminate from analysts are always in hindsight and the ideas that come from MSFT's own surveys are tainted by their view of the outcome. If I were MSFT I would pay very close attention to the posts of certain contributors to this board. After all it is free and completely free of attribution. I can think of a number of people from this board who could have done a better job than Mr. Alchin in the demo debacle. MSFT, although a great company, can find themselves unwittingly insulating their mgmt. from the world and becoming oblivious to the winds of change- the internet is a case in point. MSFT started way behind and through determination and hard work caught up. The fact that Gates downplayed the importance of the net was all subterfuge hoping to buy time for MSFT in this catch up process. Actually I think these guys are better marketeers than "leading edge" engineers but in America that is the real essence. This is not to knock their expertise in engineering but it is difficult for one company to corral all of the world's brightest people so the trick is to corral the market place. JFD