Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Microsofts Umsatz-Plus war eher eine einmalige Anomalie - Supermario, 20.10.2002, 17:59
- Sorry, Quelle: www.n-tv.de (owT) - Supermario, 20.10.2002, 18:01
- Grund: neues Lizenzierungsverfahren - Turon, 20.10.2002, 18:17
- hier das vollständige Interview - nasdaq, 20.10.2002, 18:41
hier das vollständige Interview
-->würde mich noch interessieren, ob die Übernahmen insb. Nvision schon vollständig eingerechnet wuden???
BALLMER HITS SYDNEY
20 October 2002
Michael Pascoe
"We’re not economists, we don’t have that kind of prediction, we think the rate of growth in the PC industry which is an important aspect for us will be slow and we’re making our planning assumptions around that."
As a company, Microsoft needs no introduction: it is as ubiquitous as its Windows products and still as dominant in software as ever.
But our next guest does need some introduction here in Australia. CEO, Steve Ballmer, has assumed a greater public role in the company since Bill Gates stepped back to be more focussed on development and away from being the corporate identity for the company — a move helped by Microsoft's continuing dispute with the US Government.
The company produced reasonable third quarter earnings this week which coincided with Mr Ballmer's visit... he spoke to Michael Pascoe in Sydney on Friday.
Ballmer: We’re not economists, we don’t have that kind of prediction, we think the rate of growth in the PC industry which is an important aspect for us will be slow and we’re making our planning assumptions around that. But at the end of the day we are so bullish, so optimistic, so excited about the future of technology that we’re probably willing to invest a little bit more than people are who might be a little bit more sensitive to the down economy.
Reporter: The main feature of your September quarter results was the massive income surge from the new licensing program you’re got corporate client, to what extent though were you just pulling forward revenue from further down the track?
Ballmer: I actually think we tried to be quite cautious in our earning statement to say whenever you make a change you will have some customers who want to buy in front of the change. We’re not trying to say that we think the sales results of our first quarter will be sustainable, it is kind of a one time anomaly. We’re still seeing business as being reasonably tough, at least compared to let’s say the good old days, reasonably tough around the globe.
Reporter: So that one time anomaly, that twenty six percent surge, that will come out of true future revenue? People won’t be spending down the track?
Ballmer: It will certainly come out of future revenue. There are a couple of other extraordinary things in the first quarter where some sales that we would have expected to come later in the year were advanced for a variety of reasons, so I think of it as a one time event.
Reporter: So the stock markets are wrong to be pushing up your shares then?
Ballmer: No, I’m not saying the market is right or wrong, I think even with those one time events taken into account we out performed what people expected to some degree. But if you take a look at how IBM stock for example surged and they were pretty close to expectation and how our stock in at least in after hours trading has just been up a little bit, based upon beating and at least street expectations by quite a bit more, I think people understand that this is a one time phenomenon.
Reporter: There is a good deal of cynicism among your customers that this is a price hike, it would be a cheeky thing to pull on during this stage of the business cycle?
Ballmer: Well the licensing changes that are now in effect were actually launched well over a year and a half ago and conceived two - two and a half years ago, and what we were trying to do was simplify our license terms and conditions for our customers which is something that they had asked up to do. Now with that seemingly good goal in mind I’ve got to admit we created a bunch of collateral issues, things with 20/20 hindsight that I wish we had bought through, particularly on the transition, a lot differently. For some customers they will see their total cost go up, for a number of other customers they will see total costs go down and I think most people will wind up with total costs that are more similar to the past then not. And certainly the financial community understands that this is not a significant price hike or the financial community would have bid up our shares as a result, and the financial community did not bid up our shares. Our shares did not move with, at least not up, with the introduction of the new licensing.
Reporter: Is that because of the public dissatisfaction of your customers about it?
Ballmer: Could be, could be. I mean at this stage say here in Australia, we’ve had about 86% of our large corporates take us up on the new licensing. I’m not saying every one of those is necessarily thinking they’re one hundred percent happy but I think we have worked on the issues that people have, we’ve tried to work through things on a constructive manner with our customers. It is probably important for me to note, the average consumer, the average man on the street, who is looking to buy software for their computer at home, none of this effects that person. This is about the discounting structures if you will for the very largest companies. It doesn’t effect small businesses, consumers at home.
Reporter: You did try to effect consumers and small business, you had a pilot scheme here for licensing of office, failed miserably.
Ballmer: No, no, no, what we did here in Australia I think was exactly right on and wonderful. We tested out, we didn’t take anything away, we said to ourselves, look are there ways that we can reduce the up front acquisition cost of office by spreading the acquisition cost over a number of months, more like a rental, would consumers think that is a good option or not. We decided to test it before we rolled it out, we didn’t take anything away. We tested it, we didn’t take anything away, customers voted with their feet, they didn’t like it, so we’re not going to roll it out.
Reporter: Should you have done the same thing with our corporate customers, your most important customers who were telling you they didn’t like it?
Ballmer: Well our most important corporate customers were telling us they did like. I mean we did of course, it is not like we brought this thing to market without discussing with customers. Now the fact of the matter is everything has to do with the sample that you test out any new proposition with. We couldn’t test this in the same way. What we should have done in hindsight is to do more of to socialise it broadly as opposed to implement it but socialise it broadly, and I think we may have made some different conclusions. I also think we needed a longer transition time because with a longer transition time we could have done more to educate, we could have done more to work through issues, we could have done more to make the kind of small tweaks and adjustments that we now have made and not have this thing become a cause celebre if you will.
Reporter: With the benefit of hindsight are you now glad that Rupert Murdoch’s first bid for Direct TV didn’t come off, as you were going to be in that for some billions of dollars?
Ballmer: Well we were in that bid with Rupert, we were excited to be in that bid with Rupert, I’m disappointed it didn’t happen in the time and way that we had talked about then, I mean times passed, who knows what is going to happen with Echo Star. I think News is in quite a different position but we can keep a great relationship with Rupert, we’re excited about that and if the deal had been done I think it would have been a good deal for us.
Reporter:If the deal is possible to do again will you want to put cash into it again or are those days over?
Ballmer: It is beyond speculation. We were never driving the deal, we were a partner to Rupert and to News in the deal and they really need to decide what they want to do. We had some assets we wanted to contribute to the new company, that was an important part, we have since restructured those assets anyway so a lot of our strategic interest have shifted since the deal fell apart the first time.
Thread gesperrtgesamter Thread:
