Microsoft to announce quarterly results today -- influenced by Google

Does Google have a "burn rate" anymore? Microsoft certainly doesn't...P/E of 22.68 for Misty and a high flyer bought-up, "great expectations" 77.69 for GOOG.

TWX, by comparison, P/E of 9.25...

BTW...this is the inaugural first post by a live user to this particular Weblogs Inc. site. My you and your enjoy a long and prosperous run. (Kudos to Jason and AOL).

Rob -- thanks for your great insight! GOOG's burn rate is yet TBD (depending on how you look at it), but with a P/E like this, who knows what's down the pipe for them.

Congrats on being the first commenter on goog.bloggingstocks.com! You win the prize (the metaphorical prize). We're excited about the new www.bloggingstocks.com site and the slicker-than-snot integration into AOL's finance area. Stay tuned...

anyone who is looking to buy stock is a fool not to load up msft right now you are geetting bargain price here and u will be kicking your butt saying i missed the boat again. upside is possible increases in dividend,maybe a retirement of recently purchased stock by company;thats what really needs to be done get some stock off the street,product line,cash flow unlike any other company,european union problem soon to go away those commies will finally learn in a court of law that they oversteped their boundaries,a company with a consience and a leader who spends his wealth helping people who cant help themselves, stopping the spread of disease what more can one ask of a company and their leader. buy the stock or shut up later when it starts to move big time i personally think 50 a share in 2 years is not out of the question.

are you joking. microsoft derives very little revenue from msn and internet projects. google is practically irrelevant, except from the point of news articles and dumb analysts.

Microsoft hasn't moved for 5 years. I believe it has to break out soon. Bill Gates is still relatively young and there is plenty of time for innovation. Google, is far far over priced and only the rich could afford it. At $27 a share MSFT is a steel. I do believe google is doing great things but it's over priced.

Buy MSFT before yo miss the boat.

Ned, I am afraid you miss the point. MSFT derives most of its income from its Windows operating system and its core Windows desktop Office programs, true. But that's exactly where the pressure is, from Google, Linux and Apple, the triumvirate of pain.

Linux erodes the base of the Windows operating system, but ominously, so does Apple. With expanding market share and the new ability of OS 10 to run Windows applications seamlessly, MSFT risks losing market share from both a reduced percentage of new computers being PCs and the possibility that OEMs or users may elect to run OS 10 instead of Windows on their machines.

Google attacks from the other side. With huge cash reserves and a monstrous stock price, they are the other gorilla in the room. Using their leverage they are diversifying into MSFT territory by attempting to move users dependency on desktop systems, dominated by MSFT, onto internet-based systems (calendaring, word processing, storage and file access, etc.) reducing or eliminating the users dependence on Office, Outlook, etc.

It's a three pronged attack by powerful forces that are each gaining strength. There is a reason why MSFT's price has been stagnant for five years, and the competitive reasons aren't going away.

If you believe in the Microsoft story then the stock is having an 11% off sale. Things that have not changed: China joining the rest of the world trading and copyright system is still good for the stock, weak dollar is still good, people still need to buy Excel and Word, the company still has loads of cash and a clean balance sheet, continues to buy back stock, and the company has gone through a pro-shareholder shift in the way it compensates employees and pays dividends.

If you are not a believer then the company still has delays of the new operating system Vista, the transition from growth company to large lumbering bureaucracy, a weak internet strategy, a money losing game unit, increasing expenses and an overhang of employees who need to sell shares and exercise old options.

I am a believer, I think this stock while it doesn't have huge upside looks cheap. I own it as a core holding and added today for a short term trade.

This is a copy of my comments on Mircrosoft earnings announcement from Friday. http://davidneubert.com/2006/04/28/portfolio-trades--friday-april-28-2006-microsoft.aspx