it's gone down :D

[TdC]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/36496.html

for great justice!! the sum involved is ~450mil eur sayeth dutch radio. I'm amused (slightly) though I'm sure MS isn't heh.

 

[Will]

I think that works out as about 2 weeks profits for M$.

 

[TdC]

I think that works out as about 2 weeks profits for M$.

it's about a billion guilders heh. I wonder where the money is going to go? Will it dissapear into the vastness that is the government, or will it actually be put to good work helping homeless people, the ill, students and other social parias?

 

[amobea]

Don't be silly tdc we all know there's no such thing as homeless people, the ill, students and other social parias...

They're just things that greenies make up, so they can pretend the government isn't good enough

 

[Insane]

i thought this thread was in reference to the sewage sucking pump incident
brain no workie today...

 

[TdC]

there's nothing wrong with sucking sewage, as long as you're not the one doing the sucking

 

[amobea]

TdC
sanitation expert

sucker...

 

[dysfunction]

MS will hardly notice the fine.

 

[Darthshearer]

MS will hardly notice the fine.

True

 

[Shovel]

MS will hardly notice the fine.

It's the other demands which are notably interesting.
Forcing them to not include WMP could be of interest, since they were at one point denying that it could be done (much like the Internet Explorer embedding). A little pointless for me since I'll just install it again straight away, but "meh", as they say.

 

[Tom]

They'll use the money for great social projects, like spending more money on red tape

 

[xane]

or will it actually be put to good work helping homeless people, the ill, students and other social parias?

Ironic seeing as His Billness is the world's greatest philanthropist, this fine represents about 5% of his charitable donations, I hope he doesn't take it back !

 

[amobea]

They'll use the money for great social projects, like spending more money on red tape

rofl

 

[TdC]

bah Xane, he's just trying to buy love. Before you know it he'll be draining loch ness :/

 

[dysfunction]

Cool!! I'd buy tickets to watch that!

 

[Vae]

MS makes about $3.8 billion from $42 billion turnover at the moment and also has about $51 billion cash on hand. They could have been fined up to 10% of turnover i.e. $4.2 billion so slightly got off lightly and will barely notice.

One thing puzzles me in that theres a 90% or so profit margin on MS windows and yet the company is only making a 9% overall margin which makes we wonder where how the figures stack up...
<Goes away to do some more investigating>

 

[Will]

Vae, I think you are looking at things like Cable TV, and Xbox, to explain the difference.

 

[Vae]

Hmmm I was using figures from the registry and it seems they got their profit figure slightly wrong. MS make about $10 billion+ per year profit after tax which is 23% so makes a bit more sense.

The gross margin they make is just over 80% (so 90% for Windows and less for others) before any R&D, Sales & Marketing or admin exps which brings it down to 23%.

So the fine is literally even more meaningless to them. A fine for say $4 Billion would actually have made an impact but one of $800 million (€497 million) is only 2% of turnover and 8% of profit and thus almost meaningless to them.

Hmmm I've talked too much about boring numbers (but its still better than work!)... <goes back to work>

 

[Tom]

Would Bill complain if he discovered that an employee had made off with 500 million euros? I don't think anyone could say that such an amount of money is meaningless. If this had been a fine purely against the UK market, that money would be very helpful.

Of course its a significant amount, and it sets a precedent, that they can be fined for other breaches of law.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

They will appeal, and then appeal etc etc.

I doubt any money will ever change hands, excluding the lawyers fees of course.