There are conflicting views on Microsoft's Q1 performance in 2008 which saw a dip in profits by 11% and flat sales. Yet the company beat Wall Street Estimates. Key concern is not a great performance on Vista. BusinessWeek suggests that one way Microsoft (MSFT) can stimulate its performance is by an acquisition of Yahoo!
Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Watch has an upbeat view where he points to several divisons that have shown growth.
The market is unsure of where Microsoft is on its Yahoo! acquisition path. On April 23rd Steve Ballmer stated that they could walk away from the deal also:
"We're prepared to move forward without a merger with Yahoo," Ballmer said. "We think the best way to move forward quickly (and gain critical mass against Google) is to come together with Yahoo."
Tough talk from Microsoft, has not yet pursuaded Yahoo! to come to the discussion table. Still no clarity, though it still seems to me that the acquisition will happen. Microsoft has very few options if it really wants to compete with Google.
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