[Bush2000]

Microsoft knows this.. and have thus avoided really cracking down on this practice except to push a point. But now that revenues are flat, Longhorn has been indefinitely postponed and things are not looking as rosy as they once did, M$ is having to do something, anything for revenue growth.

Awwww, poor Microsoft. They take in over $40B in revenues and $25B of profit per year. With that kind of sorry financial performance, it won't be long before creditors padlock the front door in Redmond... /SARCASM

[Knitebane]

Al Capone was quite profitable too.

That doesn't mean that he had acceptable business practices.

[dalight]

I guess the stock market has a bone to pick with 25B a year in profit.. because Microsoft stock has been just about flat (no growth) for 3 years, and frankly, the prospects are that this is as good as its going to get. This is the definition of a Cash Cow. You can see this as a derogatory term, but its just a reality. Cash Cows pay dividends but they look more like bonds than stocks at that point. But, MSFT, has some serious clouds on the horizon.