[plug] [links] [OT] Microsoft Financial Fraud

[Mike Holland]

On Wed, 4 Sep 2002 hatari at iinet.net.au wrote:

> On 4 Sep 2002, at 8:45, Ben Jensz wrote:
>
> Isn't this a "free", "uncensored", "unmoderated", "anything goes"

Oh Gawd! Not another meta-discussion. Please no.

Can we just all agree that
- yes, the NYSE and NASDAQ have unsustainably high P/E ratios.
- there have been some very dodgy accounting practices, esp with options
- MicroSoft is a good example of both

But that all belongs on another list, doesnt it?
How does this affect Linux?  (lets stick to that, please)
Even if the MS stock price plummets, they still have LOTS of cash-flow,
and cash, and will still sell the worlds most popular OSs and office
software.

  What will happen? Their staff will want to be paid cash, not options.
They will need to cut staff numbers dramatically. MS will be unable to
maintain its old bloated code, and will be forced to re-write and simplify
its software. Backward compatibility will be sacrificed in future
versions. MS software will be more reliable. This will be the rejuvination
of the company. And everybody lived happily ever after.


-- 
        The origin of Truth is Doubt - Socrates