Microsoft: Admired and Hated Gary Rubin

What Defines a Good Company? Do companies have an obligation to society? Legal Ethical Moral

How Many People Does Microsoft Employ? ~79,000 (as of 4/07)

What was Microsofts Net Income in 2007? ~14 Billion dollars

Tax Liability? $6.593 Billion dollars Arent taxes simply a redistribution of wealth?

Forced Upgrades Windows 98 Fixed Windows 95 Bugs Should it have been for free?

Predatory Practices Microsofts OS monopoly vs. Netscape The Browser War United States vs. Microsoft Ruling found that the Microsoft Corporation used its monopoly position in the operating system market to unfairly mute competition in other technology markets, including the Internet Browser market. "to the detriment of consumers... Microsoft has done much more than develop innovative browsing software of commendable quality and offer it bundled with Windows at no additional charge." As has been shown, "Microsoft also engaged in a concerted series of actions designed to protect the applications barrier to entry, and hence its monopoly power, from a variety of middle-ware threats including Netscapes Web browser and Sun Microsystems' implementation of Java." -District Court Judge Thomas P. Jackson 11/5/99

Microsoft vs. Linux Open source vs. Licensing

Charity How much money does Microsoft give away?

Microsofts Charitable Contributions Unlimited Potential - 46 million people (digital divide initiative) Partners in Learning – 71 million teachers /students in 101 countries Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – 16.5 bil.since inception, >2bil in 2007 alone.

Detractors Bloat- each new release requires more size Backward incompatibility – once a small number of users adopt others are pressured to upgrade lest they are unable to interact with files produced by the newer program

Customers First? Microsoft demanded Virginia Beach govt. account for all copies of Microsoft software.

Mission Statement At Microsoft our mission is to enable people and business throughout the world to realize their full potential. Everything we do reflects our mission and the values that make it possible.

Values As a company, and as individuals, we value: Integrity and honesty. Passion for our customers, our partners, and technology. Openness and respectfulness. Taking on big challenges and seeing them through. Constructive self-criticism, self-improvement, and personal excellence. Accountability to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees for commitments, results, and quality.

Sources ees_does_microsoft_have ees_does_microsoft_have aticversion/10k_s1.eng.html aticversion/10k_s1.eng.html enship/about/mission.mspx enship/about/mission.mspx

Sources Continued Blogs.zdnet.com