From: Egan Orion 

They were counting on: (1) pushing copyright enforcement along with DRM to
capture increasing shares of now mostly pirate markets (WinXP costs about
US $1 on the street in India), (2) sweeping along behind growth in
developing countries -- Eastern Europe, South America, SE Asia, China,
India/Pakistan, Middle East, Africa.

Open Source, anti-globalization, nationalism, and a growing tidal wave of
backlash against US imperialism are combining to put this strategy in
doubt.  Both pieces have to work for Microsoft to maintain high growth.

So the answer is, maybe they won't.  One wants to think its even likely.

Egan


Mike '/m' wrote:
> So where is Microsoft going to get the future growth that can justify
> its high p/e ratio?
>
>  /m
>
>
> On Fri, 15 Nov 2002 13:27:31 -0600, "Joe Barr"
>  wrote:
>
>
>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2480001.stm
>>
>>The figures revealed in the documents filed with the Securities and
>>Exchange Commission were prepared with Microsoft's internal accounting
>>system.
>>
>>These figures have been eagerly awaited by industry watchers and analysts
>>as they give a more accurate picture of the state of Microsoft's business
>>than does the accounting method used to report quarterly earnings.
>>
>>In the quarter ending 30 September, Microsoft's Home and Entertainment
>>division reported revenues of $505m.
>>
>>It lost $177m, up from a loss of $68m in the same period in 2001. This
>>loss is by far the largest of Microsoft's unprofitable divisions.
>>
>>By comparison Microsoft's mobile devices division lost $33m and its MSN
>>net service lost $97m.
>
>

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