NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/os/os2/advocacy/11087

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-29 | 3.1 KB

Xref: sparky comp.os.os2.advocacy:11087 comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy:3507
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!orchard.la.locus.com!prodnet.la.locus.com!lowell
From: [e-mail] (Lowell Morrison)
Subject: Re: FCC will proclaim Microsoft is run by Communists! : )
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Locus Computing Corp, Los Angeles
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 16:46:40 GMT
Lines: 52

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Veit Irtenkauf) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Lowell Morrison) writes:
>> Dov, the price drop has nothing to do with Windows.  It simply with
>> more and more people purchasing software, the fixed costs can be
>> amortized out over more people.  And if you think Microsoft is a leader
>> in this, please explain how Billy Gates is now worth 5.5 Billion Dollars.
>> It sounds like some over charging, and preditory policies have made
>> Gates the worlds richest man in only a decade.
>>
>
>If Gates would have been able to get 5.5 Billion dollars out of
>Microsoft this would mean that Microsofts totalled profits of the
>last years would be about 40 billion dollars.  Impossible.
Why?  I suspect that neither you or I have a complete picture of
MS-Financial Statements.  MS has been in the business for nearly
17 years, 40 billion in profits is quite large but not impossible,
just improbable. <grin> I consider that 20 billion over the 17 year
run is much more reasonable, but that is again a guess.

>The answer why Gates is worth so much is simple: Stock Market.
>Speculators drove up the price of Microsoft, and as its founder
>he profitted the most.  He then reinvested his profits....
And why did speculators do this?  Gates has done things like advertize
Windows NT as the Savior of Mankind for the past year and a half, and
Windows 3.n for longer than that.  Since the Windows fix (3.1) was two
years behind schedule, and NT will not ship for another 6 months or more
(most people who have seen the beta say more like 9 months to a year),
it might be taken by some that these false and misleading advertizing
practices (preditory policy?) have manipulated the stock prices.

While the SEC is not investigating MS for stock manipulation, a friend
in the SEC describes these practices of questionable legality.  But then
again, what does he know, he is only a staff lawyer..

And you are correct, at least in part, I have heard estimated that about
half of that 5.5 billion is stock run up.  (by the way, the paper value
of the stock is appearently much more, the 5.5 is the fire sale, sell it
all estimated valuation).

--Lowell Morrison
--Uncle Wolf
stuff deleted
>
>-- Veit
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Veit Irtenkauf    Technical Marketing Manager  |  email: [e-mail]
>Unify Corporation                              |  voice: [phone]
>3901 Lennane Drive, Sacramento, CA 95834-1922  |    fax: [phone]