Poor Little Microsoft

I guess we're supposed to feel sorry for Microsoft because their second quarter sales and profits were down further than predicted by analysts. According to the BBC, "The world's largest software maker said it had been affected by weakness in the global personal computer (PC) and server markets."

The unexpected weakness in sales has even resulted in a 7% drop in the value of their stock market shares. But Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer, Chris Liddell, thinks there was one bright spot in the last quarter. He says, "In light of the environment, it was an excellent achievement to deliver over $750m of operational savings compared with the prior year quarter."

So just how bad was the second quarter of 2009 (April, May, June) for Microsoft. Well, their revenue was down 17% to a mere $13.1 billion, and their net profit was a paltry $3.1 billion. How are they ever going to be able to survive with that tiny profit?

And the excellent achievement saving them $750 million -- how was that accomplished? Simple. They fired 5,000 workers. Yes, you heard that right. A company with a profit of $3.1 billion over just a three month period has contributed to these bad economic times by firing 5,000 workers.

I have a real hard time feeling sorry for a company making that much money, and still feels it necessaey to add to the unemployment problem. I am planning to replace my laptop in about a month, and I've been window shopping to see what I want. I think they may have just made that decision for me.

I'm going to have to give the Mac computer by Apple a long hard look.