Microsoft Reports Loss Due to Write-down

Microsoft Corp. Reports First Huge Loss As Public Company

A substantial accounting write-down of $6.2 billion related to the company's 2007 acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company, has wiped the software maker's entire Q4 profit.

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Microsoft stock continues to go nowhere, but Steve Ballmer has a plan!

Bill Gates: feeling less capitalistic these days

Bill Gates: Capitalism Has 'Systemic' Problems Government Should Address

(CNSNews.com) - The CEO and Chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates said that capitalism’s “systemic" problems are not doing enough for research and “the needs of the poorest.”

“In general, the world under funds research because the person who takes the risk of doing the research doesn’t capture the full benefit of having done it and so you know, capitalism does amazing things but it has one systemic problem in terms of research that it won’t do enough,” Gates said at the mHealth summit in Washington on Tuesday.

Tiger Woods costs shareholders $12 billion

If you own stock in AT&T, American Express or other companies, Tiger Wood's extramarital affairs has already cost you if you hold stock in a company he sponsors or a mutual fund that holds stock in those companies.

"Total shareholder losses may exceed several decades' worth of Tiger Woods' personal endorsement income," said Victor Stango, a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis and co-author of the new definitive study on the subject.

Professor Stango examined stock market returns for the 13 trading days that fell between Nov. 27, the date of the car crash that ignited the Woods' scandal, and Dec. 17, a week after Mr. Woods announced his indefinite leave from golf. He compared the stocks to the total market and to competing stocks, plus they looked back four years to get a sense of how the stocks have historically done in comparison to the market and to competitors.

Tiger Woods is now a drain on capitalism itself (sorry to say)!