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[Ghost]

Should people who are looking to buy a XB1 be concerned about this?

Well the last time an investor suggested MS should investigate getting out of hardware the board responded by agreeing a price for Nokia. So no, not really. I don't think they are listening.

 

[SPDIF]

Balmer is leaving in less than 12 months though. re-elected or not.

Stepping down as CEO yes. He's still going to be on the board though. With a stake that is only second to Gates. Both stakes combined will have enough sway in the company that ValueAct's 1% really won't make much difference.

 

[GoofsterStud]

It just means that Moneyhatting will slow to a crawl and more promises that Xbox One will be profitable will be made. They already pushed that profitability over all to Stockholders. The Xbox division is not worth as much as you think to Microsoft.

Well the last time an investor suggested MS should investigate getting out of hardware the board responded by agreeing a price for Nokia. So no, not really. I don't think they are listening.

Many investors look at getting into/gaining market share in the cell phone OS market, apps and services favorable. Videogame division is another story.

 

[scoobs]

This is probably going to happen. I think whoever takes over as CEO of microsoft is going to make changes that will have them focusing on the cloud and software, and away from hardware I would be shocked if Xbox One has a successor.

 

[SPDIF]

This is probably going to happen. I think whoever takes over as CEO of microsoft is going to make changes that will have them focusing on the cloud and software, and away from hardware I would be shocked if Xbox One has a successor.

It won't have a successor, but not for the reason you think.

 

[Skeff]

Stepping down as CEO yes. He's still going to be on the board though. With a stake that is only second to Gates. Both stakes combined will have enough sway in the company that ValueAct's 1% really won't make much difference.

It's not just ValueAct anymore who are looking to make big changes at Microsoft:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/microsoft-gates-resignation-investors_n_4026506.html

3 investors (likely including ValueAct) want rid of Gates...and they own over 5% of Microsoft between them, which is more than the 4.5% Gates owns (which he contractually has to sell off gradually until his stake is 0%) ValueAct are no longer alone in this venture.

 

[SPDIF]

It's not just ValueAct anymore who are looking to make big changes at Microsoft:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/microsoft-gates-resignation-investors_n_4026506.html

3 investors (likely including ValueAct) want rid of Gates...and they own over 5% of Microsoft between them, which is more than the 4.5% Gates owns (which he contractually has to sell off gradually until his stake is 0%) ValueAct are no longer alone in this venture.

But it isn't more than the 4.5% Gates owns combined with the 3.xx% that Ballmer owns. Again, come November 19th, despite what ValueAct want, despite what these other three investors want, Ballmer and Gates are almost certainly going to get re-elected. (I would be very surprised if they weren't, and if they're not then consider everything I say here a moot point.) When that happens then all this talk of selling off the Xbox business will have been worthless, and Microsoft will continue on with their devices and services plan.

Maybe in a few years, depending on how well Microsoft's hardware ventures are going, similar discussions will take place. But until then, the Xbox business is in no danger of going anywhere. Same deal for the Surface and Microsoft's phone business.

 

[fiyah]

Yes there is. The iPhone pretty much killed the point and shoot market for most people. It also killed the standalone music player. There are still some sales in each market but they have had their duck cooked by the smartphone.

The quest for the living room hasn't been solved because no one has ever brought a compelling device that ties everything together (movies, television, music and games) in a package that is convenient to keep running at all times.

One day, it will come and the standalone game console, bluray player, cable box, ipod hook up markets will dry up.

Point and shoots were always going to die. Smartphones are the natural progression. Just like desktop PC's are going to die pretty soon. Replaced by laptops. Then laptops will die and be replaced by tablets....in the home. I think MS had the right idea with the black box to rule them all. Their only fuck up is that they made the xbone need a cable box. Had it been a cable box then I can assure you Xbone would have already won NA without even being released.

 

[Branduil]

Point and shoots were always going to die. Smartphones are the natural progression. Just like desktop PC's are going to die pretty soon. Replaced by laptops. Then laptops will die and be replaced by tablets....in the home. I think MS had the right idea with the black box to rule them all. Their only fuck up is that they made the xbone need a cable box. Had it been a cable box then I can assure you Xbone would have already won NA without even being released.

Desktops and Laptops are not going to die.

 

[Yamauchi]

Pretty much.

It's tough for some group of investors, who historically has invested in MS as a company that focuses on their core software offerings, with high margins and very focused and lean teams to want to a hardware division of their own.

Regardless of how successful the hardware division may be, unless you're Apple, doing hardware is low-margin, high resource game. And that saps into the company's profitability ratio.

Yep.

 

[fiyah]

Desktops and Laptops are not going to die.

Not enterprise but in the homes they will. I mean we don't even have desktops in our offices any more. The natural progression of tech says that as soon as tablets are powerful enough they will replace laptops. That's why I loved the idea of Windows 8 and the Surface. But sadly we are not quite there yet.

 

[badcrumble]

I'd be totally down for Apple buying the Xbox division, or at least all of the Kinect patents and some game development studios.

 

[Black-Box]

Nintendo should buy it. They need the help and Xbox One is kinda like the HD Wii U

 

[flkraven]

Xbox has cost them closer to 6 or 7 billion. The first Xbox was 4 billion alone. Not sure if that includes Kinect/X1 R&D or RROD billion dollar fiasco.

Based on several reports, Microsoft has lost $3 billion over the last 10 years on it. The 360 has been profitable for 5 years, so maybe that makes up for your figure. Including the 1 billion dollars lost due to RROD, this really isn't THAT bad considering most of the losses besides that were OG Xbox.

http://www.neowin.net/news/report-microsofts-xbox-division-has-lost-nearly-3-billion-in-10-years

 

[diaspora]

Point and shoots were always going to die. Smartphones are the natural progression. Just like desktop PC's are going to die pretty soon. Replaced by laptops. Then laptops will die and be replaced by tablets....in the home. I think MS had the right idea with the black box to rule them all. Their only fuck up is that they made the xbone need a cable box. Had it been a cable box then I can assure you Xbone would have already won NA without even being released.

Enthusiast PC builds are doing better now more than ever afaik.

 

[Shadowhaxor]

Not enterprise but in the homes they will. I mean we don't even have desktops in our offices any more. The natural progression of tech says that as soon as tablets are powerful enough they will replace laptops. That's why I loved the idea of Windows 8 and the Surface. But sadly we are not quite there yet.

Well thats you. I can tell you that working for a major cloud services provider that we have desktops everywhere. As for homes, I agree to a degree. Tablets could replace the desktop for those who aren't power users; IE only use it for web content, watching movies or playing games but that's it.

Desktops are going no where until tablets and provide 100% of the same functions and accessibility. And that who Laptop replacing Desktops, they were talking that shit 5-6 years ago and now look. Laptops are on the verge of being phasesd out. Latop -> Ultrabook -> Tablet.

 

[Branduil]

Not enterprise but in the homes they will. I mean we don't even have desktops in our offices any more. The natural progression of tech says that as soon as tablets are powerful enough they will replace laptops. That's why I loved the idea of Windows 8 and the Surface. But sadly we are not quite there yet.

They can replace laptops for people who only use them for certain things, but there will always be a dedicated market of some size for desktops and laptops, because they can do things that tablets cannot.