Da ZDNet:

Some of it will be spent on hiring, Microsoft has said. It also expects to bulk up the physical infrastructure--such as server farms and networking gear--needed for its services push. In an interview with Fortune magazine, Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie said that the hardware investment needed will cost "staggering" amounts of money.

Not all the money is going into Windows Live and MSN, however. Microsoft plans a huge marketing campaign for the launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007. Both products are slated for a January launch, though some analysts see further delays on the horizon. The company is also boosting its Xbox shipments to try to move as many of the game consoles as possible before Sony's PlayStation 3 hits the market, and each Xbox is shipping at a loss.

Merrill Lynch did its own estimate of what an extra $2.4 billion in expenses could purchase. Analyst Kash Rangan said that it could buy 200,000 servers at a cost of around $500 million, hire 10,000 developers at a cost of $750 million to $1 billion, pay for $700 million in networking gear and still leave around $300 million to subsidize millions of Xbox 360s at a loss of $25 per console.

Regardless of where the money is going, Credit Suisse's Maynard said that "Microsoft is spending enough money to build a Google-sized business inside their company."


pv: Acho que amanhã o Roberto X aparecerá com outras pistas - mais criativas? Com certeza melhor que a idéia de comprar um 'naco' do Yahoo.

Agora, o cara do Merrill Lynch, no penúltimo parágrafo ali em cima, deu um chute esquisito. Montar um 'grid' a la Google é muito mais que comprar 200k servidores. E, para o Mini-Microsoft (que vive a pregar um radical 'encolhimento' da MS), a contratação de 10k desenvolvedores* soará como uma trombeta do apocalipse.

Ainda sobre a aquisição de servidores um breve comentário do John Battelle: "I wonder if it makes sense to just buy Sun for the server building capacity! (Just a joke, Jonathan...)"

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* Seguindo a ordem atual das coisas, a contratação de 10k desenvolvedores pela MS pode ser traduzida da seguinte maneira:

• 1 arquiteto banbanban que vale por mil;
• 3000 programadores;
• 3000 testadores;
• 1000 coordenadores de projeto;
• 1500 "gerentes";
• 500 "recrutadores" (para contratar esse tanto de gente);
• 500 "psicólogos-motivadores" (para motivar esse tanto de gente);
• 100 detetives (para descobrir quem é o fdp do Mini);
• 200 nutricionistas (aha!);
• 100 cozinheiros; e
  
• 99 marceneiros (especializados em cadeiras).