Microsoft posts first loss in history of the company

Come on, we all knew this day would come. You can’t make $8-10 billion a quarter forever, something has to give. Considering how much cash MS has on hand and how much they make per year, a loss of $500 million is a drop in the bucket. Gates and Ballmer probably have that much in their sofa cushions.

I see this as a good thing. The expectation that Microsoft can keep making more and more per quarter is just completely unrealistic. If you make $10 million a year, there is plenty of room for growth, but when you make $10 billion a quarter, where is the growth potential? MS is pretty tapped out at this point. They need to ease back, lower their goals and expectations to something a little achievable and move forward. Apple has seen explosive growth, and so has Google, but nothing lasts forever. There is a ceiling for everything. I think Yahoo should be a vivid reminder.

And just to keep things in perspective, Microsoft spends $500 million on advertising for their operating systems. Their last Jerry Seinfeld folly cost nearly that much. It’s clearly not going to break them