Archive for January, 2010
Microsoft posts devilish Q4 earnings of $6.66 billion
January 30th, 2010 | 
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For the quarter ending December 2009, Microsoft saw a net, record-breaking profit of 6.66 billion dollars on revenue of 19 billion dollars – in just three months! Driven by the release of Windows 7 this was actually the most successful quarter money-wise in Microsoft’s history. This might come as a little bit of a shock to the PC naysayers, what with the apparent loss of ground to Apple, but it’s just proof that the PC market in specific, and tech sector in general, is still very strong indeed.
If the inferno-like profit wasn’t enough to send you reeling — have a think about the profit margin. I still can’t get my head around the 30% difference between revenue and profit. Ah, software! Ah, a greater-than-90-percent market share! Ah… I’m in the wrong business…
In other news, Windows 7 flew off the shelves 234% faster than Windows Vista. Big surprise — Vista was obviously Microsoft’s attempt to strike a deal with Gabe and Him which obviously didn’t last very long.
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‘Avatar’ Officially Reigns as All-Time Box Office King
Maybe spending nearly half a billion dollars on a movie isn’t such a bad idea, after all. As CBS News reports, James Cameron’s latest blockbuster ‘Avatar’ has officially become the all-time biggest box office success, dethroning, of course, the director’s own ‘Titanic,’ which kept the throne warm for more than a decade. The film has grossed a staggering $1.8 billion worldwide, and many expect it to eventually break through the once-unimaginable $2 billion ceiling.
Cameron had initially taken a lot of criticism for the seemingly absurd sums of money he was spending on his high-tech epic. As the notoriously self-assured mastermind behind ‘Aliens’ and the ‘Terminator’ franchise explained to CBS News, though, “You learn to tune all that out and just say, ‘Wait until people see the film. Then we’ll know if we’re in trouble or if we’re in good shape.’”
China vs. Google: Did a Google employee provide inside help?
It’s no surprise that the last few days has seen a huge amount of information bubble to the surface regarding China’s recent cyber attacks on the infrastructure of more than 30 Silicon Valley companies. Much of it is coming from the security and anti-virus companies — now that the attack has been identified and halted, the world in general and the victims in particular want to know how it occurred. The latest news, however, comes from Google itself: China might have had inside help from Google employees.
The leaked info of a possible inside job came to the Reuters news agency from sources ‘familiar with the situation.’ Google, when asked, refused to comment on ‘rumor and speculation.’ But if Reuters is confident enough to run the story, and if major news outlets are picking it up, there is more than likely a grain of truth to it.
These insiders — these traitors – are reportedly employees at Google’s China offices. If that is actually the case, you can begin to imagine the extortion or coercion that might’ve been inflicted by the Chinese government to obtain the ‘pass codes,’ or whatever was necessary to break into Google HQ.
Google is scheduled to commence talks with the Chinese government in the next few days. We’ll be sure to report what happens.