Tim Bray has been reading Brad's analysis of Microsoft's numbers. While Brad is bemused by the R&D (where's the beef ROI?), Tim is shaking his head over the SG&A, which seems to be out of control. (From FY2000 to FY2003, revenue rose 45%, R&D rose 77%, and SG&A zoomed 131%.)
My theory is that most of it is going in "special promotions" to try to prevent large-scale defections. (You may choose different terms; I'll stick to my euphemisms.) Beyond that, MSFT is clearly doing everything it can to keep the bottom-line income number down, to (1) resist shareholder pressure for even higher dividends, and (2) avoid further (mostly Euro) anti-trust challenges. However they don't seem to be too successful....
Posted by geoff2 at March 20, 2005 10:49 AM