The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy enjoys creative math. He often blogs about Microsoft’s hourly and daily profits, or the fact that Microsoft’s revenue still dwarfs the entire open source industry. But along comes this blog post from Netbook Digest suggesting the software giant lost $435 million in profits because of the Netbook boom and low-cost competition from Linux. Hmmm…

Microsoft has endorsed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout that President Bush signed into law on Oct. 3. But how’s this for some quick math: Microsoft’s annual profits could pay the entire $700 billion sum faster than some US homeowners can pay off their mortgages. Here’s how.

Microsoft’s stock dropped sharply today because the company’s latest quarterly profits didn’t quite meet Wall Street’s expectations. Meanwhile, The VAR Guy and other open source bloggers continue to hype Red Hat and Linux as growing threats to Microsoft. But before you suggest open source will destroy Microsoft’s profits, take a look at these stagging financial figures.