Word: microsoft
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Microsoft has reached the point where it is very much like Wal-Mart (WMT) and McDonald's (MCD). Neither of those companies is growing rapidly, but both dominate their industries, throw off huge amounts of cash each year, and have balance sheets that are the envy of most other large multinational companies...
...people who run Microsoft, especially Steve Ballmer who has been at the firm for 30 years, there is a certain amount of humiliation that goes along with no longer being the world's fastest growing global enterprise. But, Microsoft's fate was unavoidable once it started to have a 90% market share in a number of its core businesses. There are, essentially, no more worlds to conquer...
...Investors are still concerned that Google (GOOG) can do a great deal of damage to some of Microsoft's most important enterprises. The search company has created products which could compete with Microsoft's big money makers, but, so far Google has had very little success in getting adoption for its software tools. The world may use Google for search, free maps, and free news, but it ends there...
...Microsoft may forge a partnership with Yahoo! and there may be some benefit in the No.2 and No.3 companies in the search engine business teaming up to take on Google. But, Yahoo! is a fairly weak operation, which means it is not an ideal partner...
...what happens if Microsoft cannot mount a successful challenge to Google's main business? Probably nothing. From a financial standpoint, the software business is better than the search business. The revenue is better, and so are the margins. Microsoft will remain successful, more successful than Google, because it owns the more valuable real estate. Being a growth company is overrated...