The continuing delay of Windows 95, the insane valuation placed on The Microsoft Network (TCI paid US$125 million for 20 percent; by comparison, AT&T paid over $50 million for all of Ziff's Interchange), the aspiration to play in all markets and rule the world (the recent cover of Fortune), even Bill Gates's buying the ultimate nerd fanzine, Leonardo da Vinci's notebook (is his money really better invested in art than his own technology?) - all these are taken as signs by some analysts that Microsoft is losing its way, that its fortunes are about to take a dive. It's one thing for Microsoft to throw its weight around the software industry, where all its competitors are smaller, and quite another to simultaneously take on Hollywood, the telecommunications and banking industries, and Washington, to whom Microsoft's entire cash flow amounts to a rounding error. Has Gates finally collected his critical mass of enemies?
ELECTRIC WORD
Is Microsoft Finally Headed for a Fall?
The Continuing Investigation of Phil Zimmermann
