See also: Yahoo, but with #2 as "Acquire at large premium".
Any company with more cash than cultural relevance will do the same.
I don't think bing belongs on your list though. It's not making headway in the market, but it's not dead yet either.
Any company with more cash than cultural relevance will do the same.
I don't think bing belongs on your list though. It's not making headway in the market, but it's not dead yet either.
Microsoft can drop the occasional service, but they rarely run from big platform bets. Most above-mentioned products were small fish or even just websites -- with the exception of Silverlight (but that's because in-browser media plugins as a category have been basically obsoleted across the whole market) and Zune (again, mp3 players have been basically obsoleted), they don't really sit on the same shelf as Office, Windows, Xbox, Windows Phone, Bing, VisualStudio or SQLServer.
Search and mobile are way too strategic to be dropped. There's no "there" anywhere else for a company as big as Microsoft!
They can lose $3B/yr for a long, long time!
Unfortunately Microsoft does not break out its Bing revenue separately (and a Microsoft spokesperson referred us back to the earnings release when asked) so exactly how much Bing rakes in is anyone's guess, but the company did note Bing managed a 40% ad revenue increase in its recent fourth quarter ended June. CEO Satya Nadella, one-time leader of the division, also noted Bing would reach breakeven within two years.
So Nadella thinks it'll break even in 2016.
0. http://www.thestreet.com/story/12821420/1/microsoft-is-using...