Microsoft to Back Up The Truck on Microcaps and BallmerFreude
Firstly let me say that I feel bad for Steve Ballmer.. I’ve never seen the head of a big co have more “out there” photos published than Steve.. and I’m not the only one guilty of publishing. I’m starting to think there’s a conspiracy going on where photographers (having seen wacky pics of him previously) try to out-do their peers with ever wackier images.. an unspoken competition of sorts, where no-one openly acknowledges the kookiness of said photos. A kind-of schadenfreude specifically targeting Steve Ballmer.. I’m going to coin the phrase Ballmerfreude (it’s now Oct 28th 2007.. Don’t expect the .com to be available for long).
Perhaps it’s that Steve has a very pleasant yet comedic skull… nicely round but funny. Me, not so much.. My head is more of an unfortunate square shape…
But I digress — It seems that Microsoft is in acquisition mode. Having realized that buying 2% of Facebook and some decent earnings can add billions to their bottom line, M$ [”in the know” author code for ‘Microsoft’] plans to go on a buying binge, acquiring “up to 100 companies”.
As an individual who understands the power of domain names, all I can ask is why?.. Why, why, why, hasn’t Microsoft bought Marchex? MCHX is a company with real infrastructure (I should know.. I’ve been on a tour), they have incredible assets and people who care so much about their jobs that they’ve personalized their cubicles.. and they were very spacious cubicles at that! This is an organization with a very low market-cap and smart management who is in it for the long haul.. The company CEO lives smack dab across the lake from Bill Gates for gosh sakes and the real estate similarities don’t end there.. If you’re looking for spooky ironies, Marchex owns a significant swath of the Internet’s burn-down real estate. Unlike browser error-search, Microsoft is incapable of taking that real estate for free via their browser… doo doo doo doo doo do do do — 
Okay, Rod Serling is rolling over in his grave somewhere… but my point stands. Buy MCHX, somebody is going to get there eventually.. Might well be Microsoft.
Microsoft is on its way out. As longer as Ballmer is at the helm there will be no reversing the course of the ship. The camera doesn’t lie: the man is a loser, a moron, a photo op with a canned message playbook. He’s ruined Bill Gate’s company and destroyed the future for all shareholders.
Marchex can and will be BIGGER and better than Microsoft. Einstein said problems can’t be solved at the level that created them. When great things are acquired by has beens the problem deepens.
Microsoft WAS great. Marchex is great. Maybe it’s Marchex who should buy Microsoft.
And don’t count Messrs Jobs and Schmidt out of the Marchex picture until the fat lady sings st their weddding. What do you think has MS acting so nervous and carelessly. Look, just because Rick Schwartz buys a dotMOBI doesn’t make dotMOBI great.
“they have incredible assets and people who care so much about their jobs that they’ve personalized their cubicles.. and they were very spacious cubicles at that! This is an organization with a very low market-cap and smart management who is in it for the long haul.”
I wonder what kind of premium they would need to pay if they wanted to acquire it. They might be able to get the company cheaply though I’d think most of the staff/management would be the first thing to go in order to turn this company around.
They are better off buying someone’s private portfolio of domain names only. The executives of Marchex have been issuing shares to themselves while the company barely shows a profit….if it all.
It looks like Marchex is just trying to spin the wheels until someone pays them off, but at some point businesses are about making money. They may have good names, but they are like Demand Media in that they have their hands out looking for more and more money….instead of finding a business model that makes money.
If they had a business model that made money like yours then a potential suitor might be able to see through all of the nonsense and actually make an offer. They could buy the names and only have to deal with a single person like yourself.
Frank,
Certainly a buyout would be veddy veddy good for you (indirectly) - then its just a matter of time for Rupert to call right? Clearly Marchex is waving red flags trying to get noticed with the appointment of Nicolas J. Hanauer as vice chairman of its board of directors. Hanauer previously served as founder, chairman and chief executive of aQuantive, a digital marketing company that Microsoft Corp. acquired in July. His vesting of 300k shares (3.3 mil at 11 share price) over the next 36 months cant possibly be his only motivation can it now?
-JP
I agree, they should marchex, they pay such high amounts for x number of year deals with facebook, with traffic that is of questionable quality, when they could buy a lifetime of quality traffic. In my opinion, microsoft should buy valueclick as well.
The executives of Marchex have been issuing shares to themselves while the company barely shows a profit….if it all.
Marchex is one of the only companies that gets it. They are building great value and create TONS of cash while using the depreciation of acquiring Yun Ye to minimize corporate taxes. Look at their operating income and cash flow statements rather than EPS. You must be at least this tall to ride this ride….
No one is going to buy Marchex until they are flat on their backs begging for mercy. That’s how it works on Wall Street. They will short this stock until it’s market cap is practically zero and then they’ll buy it for cheap.
Microsoft’s on it’s way out?
The entire US economy is on it’s way out!
Have a read through the archives of this guy…
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
and check out http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/ too.
[…] say there’s a story on the news (or a whisper on Frank’s blog) about some new word or social phenomenon.. 12,000 people hit the whois looking for variants […]
Bottom line is you cannot fix a Credit Crunch but fixing yields on investments lower. Less Interest means literally less interest from lenders, notably foreign investors, which is why the dollar is falling. It is clear that there is some support from funds that are being repatriated by companies struggling to balance the books in their domestic market, and there is undoubtedly Central Bank Intervention, mainly the Fed. It is, however, only a matter of time before the US runs out of money, which either means Interest Rates have to go UP sharply or they have to print a hell of a lot more money, which will mean hyper inflation and the dollar going into a tail spin. Recession has been inevitable for some time. Attempts to delay it onset and to start dealing with the underlying problems are only serving to increase the severity of that Recession.
“Marchex can and will be BIGGER and better than Microsoft.”
One of the things that gives the domaining business a bad name is the ridiculous, over-the-top, rah-rah attitude of many of its participants. If someone sells crappy-domain.com for $50 million, it’s “brilliant” and shows that the buyer “gets it,” and any criticism of the sale is attacked mercilessly (if without much in the way of coherent reasoning). Methinks thou dost protest too much…
[…] Frank Schilling coined the term Ballmerfreude — taking pleasure from Steve Ballmer’s misfortune. I shared that post from within […]
[…] suburb — a place where the dear departed repose in well-deserved peace. …www.startribune.comPermanent Link to Microsoft to Back Up The Truck on Microcaps and BallmerFreudeMicrosoft to Back Up The Truck on Microcaps and BallmerFreude Firstly let me say that I feel bad for […]