Microsoft’s Multiple Challenges: Is Its Size a Benefit or Burden?

Microsoft announces that it will spend about $2 billion to fend off rivals such as Google and thwart Sony’s video game ambitions and the company loses more than $30 billion in market capitalization in a day. Fair trade or overreaction? Probably a little of both according to experts at Wharton. Microsoft certainly isn’t hurting financially. The company reported net income of $2.98 billion on revenues of $10.9 billion for the quarter ending March 31. But the big question is whether that performance will be maintained over the next decade. One issue say Wharton faculty and others is whether Microsoft has grown too big to be nimble enough to compete with its long list of rivals on many fronts: Google in Internet search and advertising; Sony in video games with the launch of its Playstation 3 on November 17; Linux inside the corporation; and Apple Computer in digital media to name just a few. By extending its reach into new markets such as mobile communications and digital entertainment is Microsoft in danger of stretching itself too thin?