I'm starting to get the feeling you like a specific product here... You seem to be laying subtle hints that MSFT should acquire somebody, but I just can't put my finger on who it is.
Hep
· 3 years ago
Robert, which ship vehicle would you propose such an acquisition would go out in? Or do you think this would be in its own product? Or, perhaps, free?
dahowlett
· 3 years ago
Hey Robert - you pre-announcing the take up rate for Office 12 already? Some crystal ball you've got there. And when was the last time M&A discussions took place over blogs? Could be a first...
Stefan Constantinescu
· 3 years ago
Robert you pretty much summed it up perfectly.
If I was in charge of M&A I would have purchased AOL and Newsgator a long time ago.
I would also buy Divx networks. They have a fantastic codec, that everyone who pirates loves, and it's just so... nice!
Richard Brownell
· 3 years ago
If I was Microsoft, I would acquire scobleizer and rebuild it from the ground up so that it doesn't pick on the executives so much ;)
anon
· 3 years ago
Riya, now Newsgator. WTF.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
Dahowlett: actually, I think uptake on this version will be a lot faster than that, but I wanted to be very conservative.
Richard: that certainly would be an interesting process!
Hep: that's a real interesting question. Parts of it certainly could be free. We do have a whole new services strategy here and the MSN folks need more advertising inventory to sell.
But, I think it could be a cool new part of Office. That's my gut, anyway.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
Oh, and Richard, they could shut me down, but then there'd just be Mini-Microsoft. I think "acquiring" him will be a bit harder! ;-)
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
anon: wait until I start asking for us to acquire Yahoo and 37 Signals. :-)
Christopher Coulter
· 3 years ago
Lecturing your M&A team, isn't exactly going to go over well. Stick to slamming shaky cameras (with bad audio and poor edits) into run-on droningly boring developers faces.
Plus, an acquiring public company under SOX must FIRST look at the target's critical accounting policies; financial due diligence in the age of Sarbanes-Oxley. In addition, the SEC requires disclosure when a public company is considering a merger, hence your blog post could be reasonably detemined to be a 'consideration', and thus already be a SEC violation.
d.w.
· 3 years ago
Robert -- you state that "NewsGator owns NetNewsWire. It’s the best feed reader on the Mac — by far." Not trying to be snippy here (I have used NNW on and off since 1.0, and I think it's a great product, and Brent Simmons is a wonderfully responsive developer), but how many aggregators have you used on OS X? Just to pick a name out of the air, David Watanabe's NewsFire is a fantastic product, and one that some prefer to NNW.
Christopher Coulter
· 3 years ago
If you just realize that everything Scoble is hot on, is a perfect short sell. All will be fine.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
Christopher: have you ever worked at a big company? Sounds like you sure know a lot about them.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
Christopher: heheh!
Scott
· 3 years ago
Yeah, you buy Newsgator and the NetNewsWire users either stay frozen at version 2.0.1 or switch to Safari RSS or one of the other Mac RSS readers.
It's not synchronized with the Mac, at least not publicically. But hell, I can't even FIND NNW at NewsGator.com. I can find a news story that about the acquisition, but I can't find a link for all of the other spiffy products you talk about in your post. If I go to NetNewsWire.com I end up at some domain squatters site. If I go to http://www.newsgator.com/netnewswire, guess what I get? A 404. I have to go to Ranchero.com to find NNW. Heck, I can't even find Feeddemon there. At least it's at feeddemon.com. What a mess.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
Scott, yeah, there are definitely things that NewsGator needs to execute better on, which is probably why none of the big three acquired them yet.
Robyn Tippins
· 3 years ago
It'd be nice to see a media center podcatcher. Most people are using TiVO... ugh.
Christopher Coulter
· 3 years ago
That's the sum total of your rebuttal to question my validlity, to go for the personal attack? Wow, even High School Debate teams could whip you into pudding. But you should consult my resume before you toss out statements like that. As yes I have, a few Fortune 100's actually. But even min. wage stock clerks at Wally World work for one of the biggest public companies in America. So your "big company" point is moot.
80% of all mergers fail to kick back any shareholder value, that's a SEC reported fact. You think you are lucky here? I doubt it. Easy to dupe, nothing really special with Newsgator, they are just a third-party add-on company, that is able to turn the ship faster than MFST.
But a quick history lesson...
MSNBC - ouch, that ending price tag gotta hurt.
AOL - failed after a year of talks.
Great Plains and Navision - Oucccch (eventually maybe something, not now tho). How to Kill Big Players by Mergers 101.
FolderShare - wheeee (pointless).
Groove Networks - Where is that again? Stuck somewhere in Office 12?
Rare - expensive Xbox battle gameplan.
Slate/UPC/Corel - umm never mind, it be for sale.
Titus and Peach - Digital TV ratholes. Ouch. Expensive.
Front-Bridge, ContentGuard, Vermeer, Jump Networks, Softway, One Tree, RenderMorphics, Fox Software Inc., Connectix - Good pieces of an exventual puzzle yet with heavy abandonware risks, expensive tho.
Richard Brownell
· 3 years ago
Scoble: I don't know if Christopher has worked at a big company, but he is right about Sarbanes-Oxley things being a pain in the neck. I'm glad I don't have to (directly) deal with it. Most major companies have a team ensuring that all SOX policies are adhered to (from what I understand), so that should be a testament to how crazy it is.
Also, I wasn't suggesting they acquire Scobleizer to shut you up. They would just rebuild you from the ground up and not include the second-guess-executives DNA strand. ;)
dahowlett
· 3 years ago
Good for you Christopher - doesn't it just suck like a Seville orange when history suddenly pops up and smacks folk in the intellectual gut?
But seriously, you've got a point here. There's Robert defending some numbers no-one else has divulged in filings I've seen. Of course he can always say: "I'm just a tinsy winsy blogger, I'm blowing smoke out my ass to see what others think. I'm no exec. I've no inside track..." Maybe true in part - but by any standards, Robert has a Titanic sized megaphone.
I don't see too many SEC type people being too impressed. Or those accountable to shareholders who might just think that being 'conservative' or not is hardly a great way to be part of Microsoft's marketing efforts.
Many inside and outside of MSFT might find it amusing, but not many of those who bet their savings on holding MSFT stock.
Business 2.0 reader
· 3 years ago
Microsoft dosn't buy. It watches and replicates fast. Google throws lots of stuff at the wall and sees if somethings sticks. Yahoo looks at others throwing mud on the wall and collects mud thats about to stick.
Sorry Scoble, you would have been at better mud collection if you were at yahoo.
Dr. Merlin M. Magisch
· 3 years ago
I do understand that you kind of have to talk yourself into a piece of deadend technology like NewsGator and I can even imagine that you actually use NewsGator by yourself or think of it as something worthy.
But face it: the real world doesn't like it and much worse: doesn need it as well! "But hey..." you say, "..they don't like Outlook as well (and same still use it) - so what's your point?"
My point is that only buisness freaks use Outlook because it was pushed on them, and those poor guys just happen do not know something better. And of course Microsoft chicks use it, part of them for the same reason. Not so slowly this changes.
If Microsoft isn't smart enough to recognize that the world around them has changed abit, they're a doomed.
The Future says: Online Aggregators, read: #1 Bloglines, #2 Google Reader, #3 Rojo...
NewsGator Online better than Bloglines? Hahaha! Not even a bad clone yet.
Steve Lacey
· 3 years ago
Christopher - As someone who came to Microsoft through the RenderMorphics acquisition, I'd disagree with the "expensive" part ;-) The technology we produced was delivered by the team itself, and was massively successfull over time (and still is). Just look at Direct3D.
Also, here's another couple for your list:
BAO begat Flight Simulator, which I believe is the longest running Microsoft product ever.
Bungie: Halo/Halo 2. Anybody heard of those. Fairly successfull I think.
Seriously, I think the blogosphere should start a concentrated campaign to help Scoble get the funding he needs from his bosses.
/pd
· 3 years ago
Folks are missing one fact "Google Reader PM Jason Shellen and engineer Chris Wetherell both confirmed Google’s plans”"
I think, what scobes is pointing out is simple, they (googs) is getting ahead of the game and he suggests a method of short-circuting the corporate brain in a transprarent manner via a blog post.
Chris C: you call upon the statutes of the soxs line as a rebuttal offering, may I ask the instruments and section that you are refering to in particular ??
Miles Archer
· 3 years ago
If scoble had a chance in hell in making this happen, he wouldn't be blogging about it.
Brandon Paddock
· 3 years ago
Chris C said "FolderShare - wheeee (pointless). "
But I would beg to differ.
what
· 3 years ago
you have this assumption that MS has to compete on everything. why?
Brett Nordquist
· 3 years ago
Buying Newsgater might even buy some excitement around Office 12. But if it's considered a threat in any manner, no way in hell it will happen. Any product that entices its users to spend more time on the web rather than working within an office product is never going to be a hit at Microsoft. What happens if Office users *gasp* start feeling comfortable using a web based reader? Doesn't this lead them right into Writely? :-)
Would be a great MS purchase but I don't see it happening. Office has too much clout to block it.
Christopher Coulter
· 3 years ago
Yeah, ok, Bungie and BAO...good points (my bad for leaving off list, wasn't meant comprehensive), though Bungie wrapped in the total overall Xbox budget per se, so a loss even if a hit. FolderShare, however impressive a developer kick (even that's up for debate), still won't impact shareholders.
MFST's M&A are a mixed bag, horrid in content and Cable TV. Crumbling for things they can't work into a strategic advantage, (Solomon, Great Plains, Navision). But good in things that can mix into the whole, ie. Vermeer becoming MS FrontPage.
easier to rebuild something that’s already done
You'd think, but actually sometimes it's easier to start from zero, than to rework outside code in. All varies tho, case by case.
But Ian McAllister with his hints per "some senior players at another Tier 1 Internet company" and Scoble, with more the lucid dreaming wishlists, man, I wonder when SOX is gonna bite the bloggers. But in and ironic way, they really need not worry, the general market doesn't care, blogging is overhyped in its importance. And the blogger rumor mills have less than a coin flip in terms of accuracy levels.
dano
· 3 years ago
right on.
wetherspoon
· 3 years ago
right on...who...what...Dano?
Kirk95
· 3 years ago
Am I missing something here... Isn't the web the platform? Why would anyone need a RSS Platform?
Who cares how many aggregators Newsgator owns. Let's get serious ...how hard is it to build an aggregator? How hard is it to reformat RSS to read in Outlook? For a company with the resources of Microsoft, I would think not too hard.
What exactly are you buying by buying Newsgator? It's not going to solve the big company disease that Microsoft is infected with. It's still very very early in the RSS game. Remember Lycos, Excite and Infoseek. They all got bought!
Just launch Vista already.... If it does RSS, it will have more distribution than all the platforms and aggregators combined in what the first week?
And Newsgator... for god's sake change your freakin' name..... Why would anyone have Gator in their name? Even Gator changed their name! ;-)
Don
· 3 years ago
I don't really like any of the readers I've tried. Matter of fact, not a one offers the feature I want most -- and remember seeing in the first reader I tried years ago: Chronological view of all feeds. If I have 100 feeds, I want to see every story in a single pane in the order it is time-stamped. That way I can quickly glance at the latest stories, regardless of source. I don't see that feature anywhere. Anyone have a client that does this (PC side of the house)?
Until there is a compelling reason to use an alternate program/service, I stick with Sage.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
Kirk95: when you ask "how hard is it to make an aggregator?" you sound a lot like a NIH person. It's very hard to do it well. Which is why you're seeing so much angst in the comments here.
AT
· 3 years ago
Robert,
Why you talk about this in public? Use your 2 hours response time in communications with Steve Ballmer and make this happen. Too many talking without results is not good. Even more - some people already noticed that MSFT shareholders can sue you - as it can look like you are trying to play a game with stocks. You have real motivation to play this game - as you probably have some options. Show us results please!
timthefoolman
· 3 years ago
Isn't it a bit ironic that someone named "Wood" would post about someone having a "stiffy"?
bonk
· 3 years ago
"Cause it searches YOUR feeds" ??? I wish this was true. Newsgator definately does not search my feeds. I asked for this feature a long time ago, and just recently they told me it will be coming soon.
jojjo
· 3 years ago
Christopher: Microsoft didn't buy Groove to get Groove. They bought Groove to get Ray Ozzie. That's where they expect return of investment.
macbeach
· 3 years ago
One more missed above: Visio
I was in the process of recommending it to a government agency with about 45,000 seats. Had a trial version and was scanning and drawing our network topology with it. Had signed non-disclosure on several upcoming features that would run circles around anything out there (to this day). I was working FOR the agency, not as a middleman sales-rep, so all I had to do was turn in my report and money would flow.
All of a sudden the Visio people didn't return phone calls so I ditched the report. Next thing I know its an add-on to Office, minus the more useful features, and the stuff in the pipeline never saw the light of day.
This is what I hate about Microsoft. They not only crush competition, they crush innovation even if it isn't competition. They are a bull in the china shop of US technology, which is why I think they have set us back at least ten years in many areas. That's why I think that the only hope for technology to break free is for the US to become a second class citizen, a fate well on its way to happening.
Congratulations Microsoft, and congratulations to Scoble for participating (probably unknowingly) in the cover-up.
scobleizer
· 3 years ago
macbeach: I'm not trying to cover anything up here. If you search on Visio you'll find a few ex-employees who've given their side of the story.
It's the downside of acquisitions. They rarely go well unless there's a real strategic reason to do them and unless the teams doing the acquisition really understand what they are buying and want to work with (and for) the new team.
GeorgeLuft
· 3 years ago
NewsGator rocks! I still like Google Reader's keyboard shortcuts, though. Except that they've ignored my suggestion for page-up and page-down keys--I would think that F and B would work since their other keystrokes are very vi-like. Perhaps when MS acquires NewsGator, you can have them incorporate some good keyboard shortcuts.
seppe
· 3 years ago
Is Microsoft too stupid to code a RSS API by themself? It's a piece of cake to code something like that. By the way, RSS is old, Atom is more the way to go. As always, Microsoft is too late ...
Why does Microsoft drop core things in Vista (like WinFS) but puts useless things (like an RSS api, eye candy, ..) in? Right .. to win users and to fight back against what they think is their worst enemy, Google and OSS.
Trust me, within 10 years Windows is doomed. People just use Windows because they're used to it, not because it's a good OS. Just look at all security holes it has ... Do we pay for that?!
anon
· 3 years ago
"you have this assumption that MS has to compete on everything. why?"
Because Microsoft is a convicted monopolist felon and this culture permeates Microsoft from the executive boardroom to the janitorial closet.
Kirk95
· 3 years ago
When I ask how hard is it to write an aggregator, I meant for Microsoft? For me it would be impossible....
You don't think Microsoft could write a RSS aggregator in a matter of weeks or months? You guys have MSN, Windows, Office, Servers and .NET... just connect the dots with RSS? I don't see how hard that is? Sorry? What happened to Team RSS and the orange shoes?
Why couldn't Outlook, or IE, or Word, or Excel, or PowerPoint or Microsoft Live or Office Live or all of the above be Microsoft's aggregator?
Why couldn't your server apps be the aggregator. I just don't get what a Newsgator or Attensa would add to Microsoft? Enterprise RSS? Syncing Posts. Is that a feature, product or company...? Wait a minute Brad's invested in Newsgator...must be a company. :-)
So what's an NIH person? I don't like the sound of that - yikes... ;-)
Hey I feel your frustration, I've worked in huge companies before...
Microsoft historically has been the quintessential slow follower. First mover advantage is just not as important when you have billions in cash on the balance sheet and 90% plus share in OS and Office markets. Remember Apple, Remember Borland, Remember Netscape, Remember Google (oops to early on that on one, maybe next year)
Happy New year!
Jake
· 3 years ago
For the sake of NNW, just stay away from NewsGator.
Sam. K
· 3 years ago
I am impressed with this page...setup really nice. Doesn't take forever to load pics, like mine... Very impressive.. http://lincoln.ziarc.com
Azzurra
· 3 years ago
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!
Purchase Domain
· 10 months ago
Thanks, there is more reason to comment than ever before!
All Comments
If I was in charge of M&A I would have purchased AOL and Newsgator a long time ago.
I would also buy Divx networks. They have a fantastic codec, that everyone who pirates loves, and it's just so... nice!
Richard: that certainly would be an interesting process!
Hep: that's a real interesting question. Parts of it certainly could be free. We do have a whole new services strategy here and the MSN folks need more advertising inventory to sell.
But, I think it could be a cool new part of Office. That's my gut, anyway.
Plus, an acquiring public company under SOX must FIRST look at the target's critical accounting policies; financial due diligence in the age of Sarbanes-Oxley. In addition, the SEC requires disclosure when a public company is considering a merger, hence your blog post could be reasonably detemined to be a 'consideration', and thus already be a SEC violation.
It's not synchronized with the Mac, at least not publicically. But hell, I can't even FIND NNW at NewsGator.com. I can find a news story that about the acquisition, but I can't find a link for all of the other spiffy products you talk about in your post. If I go to NetNewsWire.com I end up at some domain squatters site. If I go to http://www.newsgator.com/netnewswire, guess what I get? A 404. I have to go to Ranchero.com to find NNW. Heck, I can't even find Feeddemon there. At least it's at feeddemon.com. What a mess.
80% of all mergers fail to kick back any shareholder value, that's a SEC reported fact. You think you are lucky here? I doubt it. Easy to dupe, nothing really special with Newsgator, they are just a third-party add-on company, that is able to turn the ship faster than MFST.
But a quick history lesson...
MSNBC - ouch, that ending price tag gotta hurt.
AOL - failed after a year of talks.
Great Plains and Navision - Oucccch (eventually maybe something, not now tho). How to Kill Big Players by Mergers 101.
FolderShare - wheeee (pointless).
Groove Networks - Where is that again? Stuck somewhere in Office 12?
Rare - expensive Xbox battle gameplan.
Slate/UPC/Corel - umm never mind, it be for sale.
Titus and Peach - Digital TV ratholes. Ouch. Expensive.
Front-Bridge, ContentGuard, Vermeer, Jump Networks, Softway, One Tree, RenderMorphics, Fox Software Inc., Connectix - Good pieces of an exventual puzzle yet with heavy abandonware risks, expensive tho.
Also, I wasn't suggesting they acquire Scobleizer to shut you up. They would just rebuild you from the ground up and not include the second-guess-executives DNA strand. ;)
But seriously, you've got a point here. There's Robert defending some numbers no-one else has divulged in filings I've seen. Of course he can always say: "I'm just a tinsy winsy blogger, I'm blowing smoke out my ass to see what others think. I'm no exec. I've no inside track..." Maybe true in part - but by any standards, Robert has a Titanic sized megaphone.
I don't see too many SEC type people being too impressed. Or those accountable to shareholders who might just think that being 'conservative' or not is hardly a great way to be part of Microsoft's marketing efforts.
Many inside and outside of MSFT might find it amusing, but not many of those who bet their savings on holding MSFT stock.
Google throws lots of stuff at the wall and sees if somethings sticks.
Yahoo looks at others throwing mud on the wall and collects mud thats about to stick.
Sorry Scoble, you would have been at better mud collection if you were at yahoo.
But face it: the real world doesn't like it and much worse: doesn need it as well! "But hey..." you say, "..they don't like Outlook as well (and same still use it) - so what's your point?"
My point is that only buisness freaks use Outlook because it was pushed on them, and those poor guys just happen do not know something better. And of course Microsoft chicks use it, part of them for the same reason. Not so slowly this changes.
If Microsoft isn't smart enough to recognize that the world around them has changed abit, they're a doomed.
The Future says: Online Aggregators, read: #1 Bloglines, #2 Google Reader, #3 Rojo...
NewsGator Online better than Bloglines? Hahaha! Not even a bad clone yet.
Also, here's another couple for your list:
BAO begat Flight Simulator, which I believe is the longest running Microsoft product ever.
Bungie: Halo/Halo 2. Anybody heard of those. Fairly successfull I think.
I'm trying to do my part to get the funding you want for the company(ies) you want to buy. :) http://www.radioactivecode.com/?p=57
Seriously, I think the blogosphere should start a concentrated campaign to help Scoble get the funding he needs from his bosses.
I think, what scobes is pointing out is simple, they (googs) is getting ahead of the game and he suggests a method of short-circuting the corporate brain in a transprarent manner via a blog post.
Chris C: you call upon the statutes of the soxs line as a rebuttal offering, may I ask the instruments and section that you are refering to in particular ??
But I would beg to differ.
Would be a great MS purchase but I don't see it happening. Office has too much clout to block it.
MFST's M&A are a mixed bag, horrid in content and Cable TV. Crumbling for things they can't work into a strategic advantage, (Solomon, Great Plains, Navision). But good in things that can mix into the whole, ie. Vermeer becoming MS FrontPage.
easier to rebuild something that’s already done
You'd think, but actually sometimes it's easier to start from zero, than to rework outside code in. All varies tho, case by case.
But Ian McAllister with his hints per "some senior players at another Tier 1 Internet company" and Scoble, with more the lucid dreaming wishlists, man, I wonder when SOX is gonna bite the bloggers. But in and ironic way, they really need not worry, the general market doesn't care, blogging is overhyped in its importance. And the blogger rumor mills have less than a coin flip in terms of accuracy levels.
Who cares how many aggregators Newsgator owns. Let's get serious ...how hard is it to build an aggregator? How hard is it to reformat RSS to read in Outlook? For a company with the resources of Microsoft, I would think not too hard.
What exactly are you buying by buying Newsgator? It's not going to solve the big company disease that Microsoft is infected with. It's still very very early in the RSS game. Remember Lycos, Excite and Infoseek. They all got bought!
Just launch Vista already.... If it does RSS, it will have more distribution than all the platforms and aggregators combined in what the first week?
And Newsgator... for god's sake change your freakin' name..... Why would anyone have Gator in their name? Even Gator changed their name! ;-)
Until there is a compelling reason to use an alternate program/service, I stick with Sage.
Why you talk about this in public? Use your 2 hours response time in communications with Steve Ballmer and make this happen.
Too many talking without results is not good. Even more - some people already noticed that MSFT shareholders can sue you - as it can look like you are trying to play a game with stocks. You have real motivation to play this game - as you probably have some options.
Show us results please!
I wish this was true. Newsgator definately does not search my feeds. I asked for this feature a long time ago, and just recently they told me it will be coming soon.
I was in the process of recommending it to a government agency with about 45,000 seats. Had a trial version and was scanning and drawing our network topology with it. Had signed non-disclosure on several upcoming features that would run circles around anything out there (to this day). I was working FOR the agency, not as a middleman sales-rep, so all I had to do was turn in my report and money would flow.
All of a sudden the Visio people didn't return phone calls so I ditched the report. Next thing I know its an add-on to Office, minus the more useful features, and the stuff in the pipeline never saw the light of day.
This is what I hate about Microsoft. They not only crush competition, they crush innovation even if it isn't competition. They are a bull in the china shop of US technology, which is why I think they have set us back at least ten years in many areas. That's why I think that the only hope for technology to break free is for the US to become a second class citizen, a fate well on its way to happening.
Congratulations Microsoft, and congratulations to Scoble for participating (probably unknowingly) in the cover-up.
It's the downside of acquisitions. They rarely go well unless there's a real strategic reason to do them and unless the teams doing the acquisition really understand what they are buying and want to work with (and for) the new team.
Why does Microsoft drop core things in Vista (like WinFS) but puts useless things (like an RSS api, eye candy, ..) in? Right .. to win users and to fight back against what they think is their worst enemy, Google and OSS.
Trust me, within 10 years Windows is doomed. People just use Windows because they're used to it, not because it's a good OS. Just look at all security holes it has ... Do we pay for that?!
Because Microsoft is a convicted monopolist felon and this culture permeates Microsoft from the executive boardroom to the janitorial closet.
You don't think Microsoft could write a RSS aggregator in a matter of weeks or months? You guys have MSN, Windows, Office, Servers and .NET... just connect the dots with RSS? I don't see how hard that is? Sorry? What happened to Team RSS and the orange shoes?
Why couldn't Outlook, or IE, or Word, or Excel, or PowerPoint or Microsoft Live or Office Live or all of the above be Microsoft's aggregator?
Why couldn't your server apps be the aggregator. I just don't get what a Newsgator or Attensa would add to Microsoft? Enterprise RSS? Syncing Posts. Is that a feature, product or company...? Wait a minute Brad's invested in Newsgator...must be a company. :-)
So what's an NIH person? I don't like the sound of that - yikes... ;-)
Hey I feel your frustration, I've worked in huge companies before...
Microsoft historically has been the quintessential slow follower. First mover advantage is just not as important when you have billions in cash on the balance sheet and 90% plus share in OS and Office markets. Remember Apple, Remember Borland, Remember Netscape, Remember Google (oops to early on that on one, maybe next year)
Happy New year!