R.I.P. Microsoft?

With as much cash in the bank as they have, they will not "Die" anytime soon. It's not like we're talking an ATT or IBM here -- MS, if they're going down, is going to take a long, long time -- possibly they will live through the next couple of paradigm shifts without a scratch.

Giving it the ole' R.I.P. headline makes for popular reading, but I think we're fooling ourselves if we cheer to loudly here.

With as much cash in the bank as MSFT has, they've attained a status nigh onto "Non-Governmental Organization", like the PLO or the IRA, or the WHO or something like that.

That much cash just gives you huge influence (think "software patents", "DRM", "DMCA", "MSNBC").

Using that much cash with any kind of goal in mind allows you to perform all kinds of weird things. MSFT could declare itself a sovereign nation, almost.

In 50 or 100 years, maybe someone will write a study or a book about the influence of that much concentrated money, and the (probably negative) impacts it had on global civilization.

Yeah, the demise of Microshaft has been predicted for as long as Microshaft has been promising to get serious about security. The article talked about companies like SGI and HP, but those are not comparable. Microsoft is too big and pervasive to go down suddenly. And the really inexplicable bit is, no matter how often customers get screwed over, abused, virused, trojaned, and no matter how contemptously microshaft treats them, they keep coming back for more.

Cash or no cash, Microsoft is perfectly capable of going down.

Who's to say what will happen if the price of Microsoft shares gets jolted in a serious and persistent way?

Having said that Microsoft is mortal, however, is not the same as saying Microsoft has been mortally wounded.

Anybody who remembers the IBM of the early 90s knows that to be true.