Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft • Hacker News Board

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#11

Post by Steko » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:00 AM UTC

The big deal here is a lack of efficiency. Apparently revenue is $2.5 bln and losses are also $2.5 bln. That means with double the revenue (i.e. nearly Google's market share) they'd barely be in the black.

Maybe we're missing something. How much of these billions in losses are not Bing? I mean most of it is surely Bing but Azure and Win 365 are probably substantial investments.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#12

Post by xiaoqmaiiuu » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:05 AM UTC

aresant wrote: post #4

"A sale would be a boon for Microsoft’s investors. . . the unit would be worth about $11 billion." So a boon to investors is a short-term sale that's the equivalent of 4.6% of MSFT's market cap (235b)? And in exchange surrender an asset that's fundamental to their mobile strategy (with NOKIA blowing in the wind towards MSFT) and strategic in distracting Google from eating their primary lunch? I am a proponent of FOCU…

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Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#13

Post by Pooter » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:11 AM UTC

jonursenbach wrote: post #8

They should sell it off to Yahoo. That'd be rich.

This.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#14

Post by brown9-2 » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:24 AM UTC

aresant wrote: post #4

"A sale would be a boon for Microsoft’s investors. . . the unit would be worth about $11 billion." So a boon to investors is a short-term sale that's the equivalent of 4.6% of MSFT's market cap (235b)? And in exchange surrender an asset that's fundamental to their mobile strategy (with NOKIA blowing in the wind towards MSFT) and strategic in distracting Google from eating their primary lunch? I am a proponent of FOCU…

But is there any evidence that either of those strategies are working?

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#15

Post by kenjackson » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:26 AM UTC

This article completely misses why Bing is strategic to MS. And no one is going to pay $11B for a product that is losing nearly $3B/year.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#16

Post by robryan » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:42 AM UTC

The biggest issue here would be they would then probably have to make google the default browser in ie and phones, making google more money. Also you would have to think there might be something in the yahoo deal to prevent a sale.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#17

Post by Duff » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:51 AM UTC

The Times misses Microsoft's strategy. You don't need to be better than Google, just be good enough so that when Google screws up, they can swoop in.

Microsoft losing $2.6B is like me dropping $5 on a crapy sandwich.

Microsoft has successfully executed this strategy several times.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#18

Post by contextfree » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 2:53 AM UTC

Steko wrote: post #11

The big deal here is a lack of efficiency. Apparently revenue is $2.5 bln and losses are also $2.5 bln. That means with double the revenue (i.e. nearly Google's market share) they'd barely be in the black. Maybe we're missing something. How much of these billions in losses are not Bing? I mean most of it is surely Bing but Azure and Win 365 are probably substantial investments.

My understanding is that neither Azure nor Office 365 are in the online services division. Azure is part of Server & Tools and Office 365 is part of Office. btw, Hotmail (and the rest of Windows Live) isn't part of OSD either, it's counted as part of Windows. OSD is pretty much just Bing and MSN.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#19

Post by quizbiz » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 3:02 AM UTC

This is interesting:

I know Apple is sitting on a lot of cash. A lot.

I think it would be fascinating to see Apple purchase Bing and rebrand it. With search built into the iPhone and the future value of mobile search in mind, I think it would be near foolish for Apple to miss this opportunity. Otherwise, no matter how well the iPhone does, Google will still always have its hand in mobile advertising money.

But what do I know?

I think it would place Apple and Google in a very interesting competitive position.

Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft

#20

Post by angrycoder » Tue, Jul 26, 2011, 3:07 AM UTC

jerf wrote: post #2

"But [Bing] has more value to a buyer that could bring it traffic." If Microsoft can't bring it traffic... who can ? Whatever other company you cite, can its putative advantage compete with owning the default browser? (Wikipedia still has IE in the lead [1], though an ever-thinner one.) Even mighty Facebook can't really compete with that sort of advantage. Honest question, interested in the answers. [1]: http://en.wi…

Microsoft doesn't have the content or services that are more compelling than its competitors to generate traffic.

Google has search, gmail, google docs, you tube, etc etc.

Facebook has your friends.

Microsoft has a bunch of second place also rans like bing, hotmail, msn, etc.