A TechCrunch MSFT Analysis: Nicely Done

January 24, 2009

Erick Schonfeld’s “Microsoft Lost Nearly $500 Million on the Web Last Quarter” here elicited a happy quack from us in rural Kentucky. The article includes a snippet of Microsoft’s financial report. With two red lines, TechCrunch makes clear the challenges that Microsoft faces in the Web search and advertising sector. Forget the fancy wordsmithing in Microsoft’s announcement. The numbers are clear. In the three months ended in December 2007, Microsoft lost $247 million on revenues of $863 million. In the three months ended in December 2008, Microsoft losses rose to $471 million on revenues of $866 million. Microsoft lost more and lost market share. Remarkable. Google, on the other hand, increased its lead in Web search and reported an increase in revenues, but a slight drop in profitability. Can Microsoft close the gap? In my opinion, which I expressed to a crowd of unbelievers at a pretty small search conference in the fall, it’s game over. These numbers support my assertion.

Stephen Arnold, January 24, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Financial, Microsoft, News, Online (general), Search

Comments

One Response to “A TechCrunch MSFT Analysis: Nicely Done”

Finance Geek » Good to see that Microsoft’s Adsense competitor is doing well in beta on March 19th, 2009 4:21 am

[…] A TechCrunch MSFT Analysis: Nicely Done […]

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.