Ask YC: If you were the CEO of Microsoft (with $45B budget) what would you do ?

Re:Ask YC: If you were the CEO of Microsoft (with $45B budge... by popat on Friday May 02, 2008 @02:11AM (#179273)

i will start doing things that apple and google will do with that kind of budget. - Fix search engine to make it fast and efficient (like google because ad revenue is all about search). - Create innovative marketing campaign like apple to increase the market share of my search engine usage. - Introduce new and innovative h/w products like apple. - Convert all my apps as web 2.0 apps with optional search and ad feature. I think all of these can be done with way under $45B budget.

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Re:Ask YC: If you were the CEO of Microsoft (with $45B budge... by trevelyan on Friday May 02, 2008 @03:01AM (#179299)

Try to salvage their desktop market. This means licensing or purchasing the necessary software to make Windows usable out-of-the-box. DVD, MP3 codecs, compression and decompression utilities, basic compilation tools and more should be included by default in every Windows installation. Also: speech recognition, translation software, telephony applications and more.

Set up a commercial software repository and get into the business of managing a marketplace rather than just providing desktop software. Prepare the company for the day it will need to give away its operating system to attract users for ancillary services.

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Re:Ask YC: If you were the CEO of Microsoft (with $45B budge... by dcurtis on Friday May 02, 2008 @02:56AM (#179297)

That sounds like a recipe for failure.

A new search engine marketed with Apple's style, while building hardware and converting apps to search/ads?

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