Ballmer has fling with Prudence as Gates watches

THE SEATTLE TIMES had a reporter at an often acrimonious shareholders meeting in Bellevue yesterday.

The CEO and the CSA (chief software architect) faced a light toasting from shareholders who appear to want to know why Microsoft is holding on to a huge cash pile.

But, the paper reports, in an off the cuff exchange with one Mr Angry, Ballmer showed his mettle by telling him that the Vole was behaving prudently by holding onto the dosh.

Prudence was the name of the game because if Windows was "broken into pieces", the cost to Microsoft would be incredible.

And in any case, despite Ballmer's fling with Dear Prudence, he must be aware of Gates' earlier statement at Berlin last month where Bill said the cost of building Longhorn would be equal to the first manned flight to the moon.

As that cost around $20 billion then, Ballmer's embrace with Dear Prudence is surely the right thing to do. Subtract $20 billion in old money from the $51 billion Microsoft currently has, and there's not much left to pay the boys and girls who do the patches. µ

L'INQ
Seattle Times
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Microsoft Longhorn to cost as much as man on moon project, Gates says