The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 136 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Gilbert: Microsoft is the only Big Tech giant without federal antitrust probe
“The only one that's not under active antitrust investigation today by the federal government.”
Gilbert: Popular belief that Nadella originated Azure is historically inaccurate
“As the general public is concerned, Steve Ballmer was obsessed with Windows. He built the enterprise business. He left. Satya Nadella came in and launched Azure, and Azure has been great. Like, not exactly. That's not really what happened.”
Microsoft's Altair BASIC was the first commercial software product ever sold
“This is the first time software has ever been sold. Other than the IBM accounting machinations to protect themselves from antitrust, which was just accounting, nobody had ever sold software before. This is the first time.”
Microsoft will not make Activision games Xbox exclusive following the acquisition
“People are worried about with the Activision deal about whether Microsoft would make Activision's games exclusive on Xbox. I don't think they will.”
Microsoft's $1B Deal Spurred OpenAI's Captive For-Profit Restructuring
“And while they're there, they hash out a deal for Microsoft to invest one billion dollars into OpenAI in a combination of both cash and Azure cloud credits. And in return, Microsoft will get access to OpenAI's technology, get an exclusive license to OpenAI's t…”
Alphabet generates more net income than any other U.S. company
“Google, and I should say Alphabet today, generates more net income or profit than any other U.S. Company. More than Apple, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway.”
Ballmer: Microsoft's first antitrust inquiry came from FTC over IBM collusion
“This was our first antitrust problem. I don't know if you guys know this, is the FTC at the time thought we and IBM were working to divide the market because we had done some positioning. What's windows good for? What's always too good for? We and IBM had done…”
Ballmer: Microsoft was the first major company to replace options with RSUs
“And we transition then from stock options to stock awards. Which, if you notice, I think we were the first to make that as a major transition, but everybody's made the same transition.”
Mark Zuckerberg Turned Down a $24 Billion Acquisition Offer From Microsoft
“Less than two years later, he turned down twenty four billion and that they were really good for the money. It's Microsoft.”
Rosenthal: Majority of Microsoft leadership and Satya Nadella opposed Nokia acquisition
“At one point, as Satya talks about in the book, there's a straw poll taken of all the division heads, all the top leaders in the company, whether they're for or against the acquisition. The majority are against the acquisition. Satya is against the acquisition…”
Gilbert: Windows 8 touch interface was originally planned only for tablets
“What ended up happening was the original vision for the Windows eight touch thing that we're all talking about, these live tiles, that was supposed to only ship for tablets as it was originally dreamed up, and there was a version of Windows eight that did not …”
Rosenthal: Microsoft licensed Spyglass Mosaic code for $2M for Internet Explorer
“They license the source code for Marc Andreessen's original Mosaic browser from... Spyglass software for two million dollars, and that code base becomes the base upon which Microsoft builds Internet Explorer.”
Rosenthal: Ballmer replaced Muglia despite Server & Tools making $12B and growing fast
“Bob was crushing it as Head of server and tools. Revenue was growing, I don't know, 30, 40% a year. It's a twelve billion dollar business. But the reason that Steve made the change was he said, we need a new leader who's going to come in and change this organi…”
Rosenthal: Ballmer-era server products all became multi-billion-dollar revenue businesses
“These are All, every single one of those names I just mentioned become multi-billion dollar revenue enterprise IT server products that are built and sold during the Steve Ballmer era of Microsoft.”
Apple's 1985 intellectual property license covered all future versions of Windows
“Apple does do a deal to license a lot of quote unquote their intellectual property, which of course came from Xerox, to Microsoft. Apple, I think, was under the impression that it was just for Windows one point oh, but the actual terms of the agreement are thi…”
Novo Nordisk's 84% gross margins surpass Microsoft and Google
“Gross margins are better than software. They run about 84%. Lilly is also a very high margin company, running about 80%. For context, Microsoft has a gross margin of 70% and Google is 56%.”
Over 90% of Early Google Searches Ran Inside Microsoft Internet Explorer
“So to this point, over 90% of Google search queries were done on Windows PCs, and 90% were done in Internet Explorer running on those PCs.”
Microsoft's Productivity Segment Generated $120 Billion Versus Google Cloud's $50 Billion
“Microsoft's Productivity and business process segment, which is mostly office. I think LinkedIn is now part of this too. Last year generated over a hundred and twenty billion dollars in revenue. Google reports Workspace as part of the cloud segment. So all of …”
Ballmer: Microsoft initially charged fixed fees before switching to per-unit licensing
“We didn't charge for the operating system on an ongoing basis. We charged for it one time. If you got a new version, we charged another time and we did the same thing for basic and everything else because At the time, you could think we were like a substitute …”
Microsoft's $240M Facebook Stake Became Worth $8 Billion Post-IPO
“That two hundred and forty million dollar investment, by the time they start selling it down years after Facebook is public, ends up being worth eight billion dollars.”
Rosenthal: Microsoft invested $240M in Facebook at a $15B valuation
“And the big kicker, Microsoft is going to invest two hundred and forty million dollars in Facebook at a 15 billion dollar valuation.”
Rosenthal: LinkedIn advertising and content generates over $5B annually
“Of which five billion Comes from advertising and content, which for all intents and purposes didn't exist when the acquisition happened. They have built that into a real business.”
Google Sheets Users Are in the Global Minority Compared to Excel
“Excel is still the main way that spreadsheets are done around the world. I bet a lot of listeners use Google Sheets. We do, too. We love it. Also use Excel, but if you do use Google Sheets, you are in the minority.”
Gilbert: Initial Azure launch did not threaten Microsoft's Windows-centric model
“In its initial incarnation, Azure did not threaten The Windows-centric approach. If you remember, when Azure launched, it was Windows Azure, and it ran Windows Server, and it was Platform as a Service, and Microsoft in no way changed its tune on open source.”
Gilbert: Microsoft gross margin on retail boxed Windows was 29% in the 1990s
“In the nineties, the box software that Microsoft would use to sell Windows Their gross margin on a copy of Windows was 29%.”
Internet Explorer grew from 20% share in 1996 to near-total dominance by 2000
“And by the end of that year in 96, Internet Explorer passes 20% market share. 97 it passes 40% market share. 98 it passes 60% market share. And then by the year 2000, Internet Explorer basically has, for all intents and purposes, a hundred percent worldwide Br…”
Rosenthal: 1994 Microsoft consent decree banned tying but allowed feature integration
“The next year, in July, 1994, Microsoft just settles with them, rather than going to trial. They're like, alright, look, we just wanna be done, we're gonna settle with you DOJ, we're gonna be done with the US federal government here, and in that settlement, th…”
DOJ Remedy Mandated Gates and Ballmer Work at Separate Breakup Entities
“Steve Ballmer had to work at one company, and Bill Gates had to work at the other. They could not work at the same company. Each of those two, after they picked their companies, had to divest all of their shares From the one that was not their employer, so the…”
Gilbert: Microsoft achieved 75% gross margins selling Windows via OEM channels
“But when they're selling through an OEM channel, their gross margin was 75%, because you just ship the bits to the OS once, and then the PC manufacturer takes it from there.”
Gilbert: More profits accrued to Microsoft's partner ecosystem than to Microsoft
“There are far more profits who have accrued to Microsoft's independent software vendors, resellers, retail partners, than just to Microsoft itself.”
Rosenthal: Windows XP sold over 500 million copies across its lifetime
“XP was a huge success. Sells over half a billion copies. Gets used over its lifetime on probably a billion PCs.”
Gilbert: Microsoft P/E multiple compressed from 75x to 14x under Ballmer
“The P.E. Multiple went from 75 X to 14 X. The market cap when he was announced went from six hundred billion to when he left at three hundred and thirty billion.”
Microsoft retained full non-exclusive licensing rights to DOS from IBM
“Microsoft retained the rights To own DOS and to own their languages and license it and them to anyone else they wanted at any price on any terms.”
Lotus generated more revenue than Microsoft in the late 1980s
“There are a couple of years in the late eighties where Lotus has more revenue than Microsoft. And is valued higher.”
Microsoft surpassed IBM in market capitalization in January 1993
“January, 93, the crowning moment, it happens, Microsoft passes IBM in market cap”
Microsoft became the first software company to pass $1 billion in revenue
“In fiscal, 1990, the year that Windows three point O shipped, Microsoft does 1.2 billion dollars in revenue, making them the first software company ever to pass a billion dollars in revenue.”
Microsoft did not pass IBM in annual revenue until 2015
“Microsoft would not eclipse IBM in revenue, you mentioned market cap, David, but in revenue until the year 2015.”
Microsoft was the first software firm to reach $10 billion in revenue
“Fiscal 95. So this is the 12 months ending in June before Windows 95 comes out. Microsoft did 5.9 billion dollars in revenue. Fiscal 96, they did 8.7. Fiscal 97, when Windows 95 is really going, they do twelve billion dollars in revenue. First software company…”
Microsoft dropped 'running Microsoft software' from its vision due to DOJ scrutiny
“And then the part that got left off later when the DOJ started sniffing around was running Microsoft software, but that is the vision here.”
Technology Venture Investors provided Microsoft's only external equity dilution
“Spoiler alert, this is the only dilution that they would ever take.”
Microsoft bought full rights to QDOS for $75,000
“Later on, before this all gets announced and the PC ships, Microsoft would pay Seattle computer products another 50,000 dollars for full rights to own 86 QDOS, sell and license it to anybody else indefinitely. So I believe the total amount of dollars that chan…”
IBM paid Microsoft a $430,000 fixed fee for DOS with no royalties
“IBM paid Microsoft 75,000 dollars for testing and consultation. 45,000 dollars for DOS. 45. And 310,000 dollars for an array of sixteen-bit language interpreters and compilers. So all told, bundled together, that is 430,000 dollars fixed that IBM paid Microsof…”
Windows 95 sold 7 million copies in its first month
“Windows 95 comes out, sells a million copies in the first week, seven million copies in the first month.”
Bill Gates personally absorbed 3.5% equity dilution to hire Steve Ballmer
“In fact, it created some tension with Paul Allen, where Bill asked Paul if they could go to five percent. Paul said sure, and then Bill actually offered him eight and a half percent, and Paul got upset, and Bill said, I'll eat the three and a half percent. It …”
Microsoft Excel was the world's first graphical spreadsheet program
“Excel is the world's first graphical spreadsheet program, and that's why it wins, and that's why it's so important.”
Rosenthal: AWS market share exceeds Google Cloud and Azure combined
“AWS is growing at 37% annually on a seventy five billion dollar base. Google and Microsoft are growing at 45%, but their market share combined is still significantly less than Amazon.”