Who's afraid of the big bad Microsoft?

[181]

Not the BDA. If you look at very very simple numbers, you will notice the BDA (including its subsidiaries) is a larger entity.

Blu-ray support (only including 2 out of the many members in BDA)
Matsushita Electric (including Panasonic and all other subsidiaries)
Revenue: $74.5 billion USD
Employees: 334,752

Sony (including all subsidiaries)
Revenue: $70.303 billion USD
Employees: 163,000


HD DVD support
Microsoft
Revenue: $51.12 billion USD
Employees: 79,000

Toshiba
Revenue: $63.7 Billion USD
Employees: 190,708

A very rough approximation of a company's worth is based on revenue. With all this talk about Microsoft's omnipotent power in the tech industry, people forget how big of a powerhouse Sony is. Matsushita would probably eat Microsoft for breakfast. People think Microsoft always gets their way...but they are fighting the big boys this time and Microsoft pales in comparison.

Matsushita played an important role in the videotape format war since they were the parent company of JVC, developer of the VHS format. Matsushita (VHS) and Sony (Betamax) were against each other in the videotape format war. They are now together in this war. AND the first VHS recorder delivered in the US was $1060 USD....sound familiar?

I think that Matsushita probably plays a very important role in this current battle and they are probably providing invaluable information about format war semantics in this current battle.

Matsushita Reference (page contains link to actual data)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsushita

Sony Reference (page contains link to actual data)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony

Microsoft Reference (page contains link to actual data)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft

Toshiba Reference (page contains link to actual data)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba

[iwanttobeabmoviestar]

Originally Posted by 181

Not Sony. If you look at very very simple numbers, you will notice Sony (including its subsidiaries) is a larger company.

Sony (including all subsidiaries)
Revenue: $70.303 billion USD
Employees: 163,000

Microsoft
Revenue: $51.12 billion USD
Employees: 79,000

A very rough approximation of a company's worth is based on revenue. With all this talk about Microsoft's omnipotent power in the tech industry, people forget how big of a powerhouse Sony is. People think Microsoft always gets their way...but they are fighting the big boys this time and Microsoft pales in comparison.

and microsoft needs to learn
as do paramount and dreamworks is "money cant buy you love"

[bad111]

link?

[MOONPHASE]

its because Microsoft is the evil one and a lot of people are realizing that

[Mystique]

Interesting.

[181]

Originally Posted by bad111

link?

i put them in.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Microsoft seems bigger than it is because Bill Gates demands a much larger salary than any other CEO.

[181]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Microsoft seems bigger than it is because Bill Gates demands a much larger salary than any other CEO.

yeah that's another thing i was going to write. that's why they SEEM powerful. Bill Gates being the richest man in the world only means the wealth is not distributed the same way as other companies.

[JoeKickass]

Microsoft is not as large as their perceived influence. If you exclude the 'Windows' platform from MS's portfolio, they are a smaller software developer than IBM, Sun, Oracle, and a plethora of other companies making large enterprise applications.

OS's aside, IBM is actually the largest software developer in the world. We just don't see it on the retail consumer level.

MS is only feared, and I use that term loosely, in the PC market place simply due to their influence on industry practices and policies. Due to the Windows platform, they get the benefit of cramming poorly designed and coded standards and applications down our throats. Outside of the PC world, MS is not a very big fish; for proof I contend that if MS had the power people think it does, the format war would have been over long ago in favor of HDDVD. But it's not, so it alleviates to one of the boundaries of MS's domain.

Money can't buy you everything.

[richard lichtenfelt]

If Bill would let them spend some of his income on research and development they could rip off more Apple products.

[Beefbowl]

Bill Gates has more money than the whole company? That don't sound right.

[181]

added some Matsushita info.

[BluHavik]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

If Bill would let them spend some of his income on research and development they could rip off more Apple products.

I'm for real, nothing else on the side matters. That is the funniest and most true thing I've seen I a long time.
Maybe if they didn't rush to beat the PS3, they coulda found the 30% fail rate before. Oh wait sorry, this is M$ 30% is about the norm...Anyone else MS free? I use the Linux/firefox..Stuck with MS for work, that is where they make money, bastards.

[181]

fixed up the original post to clarify my thoughts more.

[MOONPHASE]

and plus look at the PS3 for instance it has folding@home one of the greatest programs ever do you think Microsoft would spend money on something like that? probably not. bill gates hogs all of that money to himself and now he is not the most richest man on earth

[181]

Originally Posted by Beefbowl

Bill Gates has more money than the whole company? That don't sound right.

Revenue is different than perceived worth. A tech company in Japan with $10 million in revenue may be worth something like $80 to $100 million. A tech company in the US with $10 million in revenue may be worth something like $40 to $50 million. It depends on market conditions but revenue is not the "worth" of the company, it is the amount of money that comes into the company (yearly in this case) before operation cost deductions.

But, having a larger revenue means you are dealing a larger business which is why it plays an important role on establishing your "worth".

[Grisle]

I am...they were mean to me in high school.

[Elandyll]

Indeed, the actual size of MS is relatively small, in comparison Toshiba is much larger (around $75b worth).
This being said there is an area where Microsoft proves to be an invaluable asset for Toshiba: Available Cash.
The net benefits registered by M$ every year are calculated in billions, wherehas they are in the hundreds of millions for major CE makers.

Yep, M$ is making a lot of Cash for its Shareholders

This being said, if I was one of them, I'd hate to see it wasted to boost a dying format in a sterile war...

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Grisle

I am...they were mean to me in high school.

i read the topic of this thread and then on my screen your post showed up almost like you were answering for me and plus its kind of funny that it would show yours first especially with what the name of this thread is called

[Paden]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

This being said there is an area where Microsoft proves to be an invaluable asset for Toshiba: Available Cash.

<snip>

Yep, M$ is making a lot of Cash for its Shareholders

This being said, if I was one of them, I'd hate to see it wasted to boost a dying format in a sterile war...

I am and I do hate to see it wasted on Red. And you're 100% correct, the cash is there and it is king. It can buy you a lot of love temporarily. It can buy lawmakers. The one thing it doesn't seem to ever do is make its way into dividends for us shareholders. Damn misers!