[kstar]

Here's some more:

here are too many issues to mention, but let’s review some of the real lowlights:

Losing the DOJ and EU cases, which has resulted in $10B’s in fines and (more importantly) permanently damaged MSFT's reputation.

Failing to aggressively leverage MSFT's cash horde buying promising companies at the bottom of the dotbomb for pennies on the dollar (btw, not 20:20 hindsight on my part – I posted that MSFT should do this in real-time back then).

The Longhorn clusterf!*k. The long-term damage of which continues to this day, will never be fully quantifiable, really began the process of confidence erosion in both the management team and company more generally, and may prove to be a decisive turning point from which the company never recovers.

Allowing Xbox to dig a $6B hole in the ground.

The "emerging bets" which collectively have been a bust.

Allowing IE to stagnate after risking the company and paying $B’s in fines primarily to beat Netscape and become the browser leader.

The major opportunities that were missed while leadership was otherwise preoccupied/distracted (Search, Advertising, Web 2.0/SaaS, etc.).

Losing digital media to AAPL.

The financially-retarded one-time dividend and the ongoing stock buyback games.

The sorry performance of the stock (which has resulted in part from all of the above).