Microsoft Bing is in the news again the past week.
Microsoft looks to expand Bing
JUNE 10, 2010
"When you're the number two, you have to think outside of the box," Mr. Mehdi said.
I am a Microsoft shareholder. Microsoft definitely needs new businesses. Our stock price is being punished because of our lack of growth but...
Is paying customers to use our product really "thinking outside the box"? It would be more precise to say that is thinking "outside the business."
Building a search product that is different and has a different focus from Google is smart. It differentiates us but the cost of the massive investment and the goofy advertising is questionable.
We need profitable businesses that can grow. We dont need vanity business that continue to suck resources year after year. Our CEO calls those "strategic bets" but I call them expenses. If there is no return on the investment, there is no business and that is why our stock has steadily lost value over the past 10 years. We tend to invest without returns.
If Bing+Yahoo is 30% of the search market and you cannot turn a profit with a third of the market, something is wrong with your business. Either the business itself is a bad one or you are lousy at execution. Losing money on every sale and trying to make it up in volume is not a recipe for profit growth. I am hoping for the best but Microsoft's consumer-focused products dont have the best track record so far.
