Web services are only going to work if Java and .Net are going to be interoperable.
Let's not ignore the fundamental course of business.
Licensing is the story. All that other growth from services and maintenance comes from having new software business.
Siebel was in a world of hurt. For Tom Siebel to sell to Larry Ellison, this is his worst nightmare. That shows the dire straits Siebel was in.
Most software companies risk losing market share if their products get out the door late and behind competitors. If Vista is late, there obviously is no meaningful market share loss.
Netscape is less and less of a priority for AOL Time Warner, and this is just another step in the slow sun-setting process of Netscape Navigator.
People will move into software next year. It's a question of when, not if.
If the DOJ were to appeal, this would have dragged the case on even longer regardless of what the companies wanted to do. We're not in legal limbo anymore. The dominos are falling.
The applications business continues to stumble and this quarter shows that. Oracle doesn't have the best applications products. That's why they want to buy PeopleSoft.
We are now at an inflection point where I think growth is going to start accelerating.
Xbox does have a material impact for Microsoft in the December quarter because of the holiday shopping season. The fact it was capacity constrained in December will probably create some headwinds for their overall quarter.
There is a definite horse race between the two of them. But this is a massive market. It is not an either/or situation. Both will be successful.
This segment of the business could provide wind for Microsoft's sails for the coming years.
Everything has gone against Oracle. This is almost the final straw.
Everything PeopleSoft announced this morning helps clear the way to begin negotiations and maybe consummate the merger. The license revenue is much better than expected and that gives PeopleSoft a position of leverage.
Entrust is one of the companies today that has a very specialized solution and has yet to broaden its portfolio. It's ripe for acquisition.
The server business did really well. There are good things going on ahead of Longhorn.
Strategically, the deal makes sense. I would have liked the deal better if it wasn't part of a series of acquisitions ... but I still think the positives outweigh the negatives.
A lot of the shortfalls are being blamed on the onset of the war so investors are giving the software companies a pass this quarter.
This is the one legal issue that was a big thorn in Microsoft's side and most people were led to believe is that this would drag on and on and on.
For a company with great profitability and a near monopoly, it would certainly not be unheard of to pay two to three times the growth rate. So paying 25 times earnings for one of the strongest technology companies with an awesome franchise is fair.
Everybody was prepped by Oracle's news a month ago. Expectations were going down.
It's very much steady Eddie. Microsoft showed nice growth and better levels of profitability.
Things continue to be difficult -- software management teams and salespeople are not seeing a pickup in software buying.
This is just part of the software world. And because there's a remedy for these problems, investors don't lose too much sleep over it.
In one fell swoop, nearly $33 billion is getting rotated out of equity into cash and I do believe a good portion of that will find its way back into Microsoft.
Investors feel they are not going to step in a land mine -- that's brought money back to the sector.
