Microsoft searches for new revenue sources
InfoWeek | at | by Mike
Microsoft makes most of its profits on the Windows operating system and the Office suite of desktop applications, but the company also is heavily invested in future markets. Several of them, including business applications, are barely profitable at the moment but may pan out big for the Redmond, Wash., vendor, Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman said last week.
In addition, Microsoft is sitting on a hoard of $60 billion in cash, which puts it in a position to make as many small acquisitions as it wants, or perhaps a large one. "The talks with SAP indicate that they're open to a large acquisition, an acquisition that could take them in an entirely new direction," Bittman said at the Gartner ITxpo in San Francisco.