“What made Microsoft president Steve Ballmer take a shot last
week at the ‘absurd’ prices of technology stocks, including his
own? …there are good, hard reasons why Microsoft is dismayed by
the booming technology stock rally, and Microsoft hasn’t done
anything to distance itself from the comment since Ballmer made
it.”
“…the boom has made it harder for Microsoft to match its
upstart competitors in deal-making and is causing the company to
lose some of its best talent to ‘dot.coms.’ “
“Microsoft has lost a steady stream of very bright managers to
the lure of the Internet, some of whom have already made it big
with their own start-ups, including Peter Neupert of Drugstore.com,
Rob Glaser of RealNetworks, and Naveen Jain of Infospace.”
“Yahoo, America Online, and Excite AtHome, its three most
important Internet competitors, made multibillion-dollar
acquisitions this year that were larger than any Microsoft has ever
taken on. AOL acquired Microsoft archrival Netscape for $9 billion.
Yahoo bought broadcast.com and Geocities.com for $8.7 billion, and
AtHome won Excite in a $7.2 billion deal–all paid for with
stock.”