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Activist investor at MS who wants out of Xbox given seat on Board of Directors
- Thread starter zomgbbqftw
- Start date
The Cartographer
Member
Yikes!
Derekloffin
Member
X1 is going to have to prove itself and darn quick or things could get ugly.
Yes it is.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
An option they will take up, having pushed for it for a year or so. Unless you expect a reversal of their currently held position...
TechnicPuppet
Nothing! I said nothing!
This is to shut them up. The Xbox dept is fine.
Okay, that makes sense. I didn't know they were actively pushing for that position and figured it was just empty talk, really.
Xisiqomelir
Member
The chances of ValueAct not exercising their option is slim.
It's still not quite Third Point level activism, though.
And it isn't as if their sole aim is to kill xbox. Nonetheless, things are up in the air at MS, at least until a new CEO is named...sure would like to be a fly on the wall.
Americanmushroom
Banned
i dont get it , the article doesnt talk about 'xbox' ... my english isnt that good , i dont really understand whats happening here.. can someone explain this in simple words? thanks
a person who wants to get rid of xbox, because it costs ms too much money, is being granted more power.
This investor is outspoken about wanting to sell or marginalize the Xbox division, and they recently got a board seat which means they have more power and influence when it comes to making decisions like that.
ValueAct wants Microsoft to focus on enterprise and cloud, non-consumer segments.
In previous articles, a Nomura analyst that supposedly is 'well sourced' wrt ValueAct's agenda says that among other things it would like MS to sell off Bing and Xbox.
It's no coincidence that Ballmer and another board member came out publicly, recently, to defend Microsoft's position in the consumer space.
Battle lines are being drawn. Will be interesting to see where things go. Even if ValueAct doesn't get its way on all things, discussions and negotiations around these things could have ramifications for Xbox's priority/position within the company.
Americanmushroom
Banned
man neogaf isawesome. thanks for all your responses!
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
It would certainly be impressive if GAF could raise 2.7 billion.
ShogunDarius
Member
This is worrying tbh, though I doubt anything will happen in the short term unless sony slaughters them over the next year in console sales
Americanmushroom
Banned
google or samsung
Garrett 2U
Member
SneakyStephan
Banned
If everyone on gaf stopped paying for xbox live for one year we'd have that much, easily
If everyone on gaf stopped paying for xbox live for one year we'd have that much, easily
You mean stop buying games for five years.
SneakyStephan
Banned
Or skip one steam sale.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Put me down for 2, you guys get the rest though.
Not this gen, but next? I mean given that it doesn't have the benefit of launching first by a large margin, is being sold for more, and that their biggest competitor is doing a lot of things right there is no way the XB1 matches the 360. You would have to be blindly optimistic to think otherwise. Their TV functionality won't make up for it, even in the unlikely event they reached their lofty goals in that space.
Given that, imagine how the sentiment to ditch the division will flare up even more among shareholders
RobotRocker
Member
More likely they would spin it into its own comapny and use it to attract investment outside the company. The brand is far too valuable to sell off on its own and far too attached to windows to sell off at this point, really.
Garrett 2U
Member
If everyone on gaf stopped paying for xbox live for one year we'd have that much, easily
129,234 Members x $60 Gold/year = 7,754,040
129,234 Members x 20 games/year x $60/game = 155,080,800
Total = 162,834,840
We're almost 20% there!
big enough and interested
So, yeah, I really doubt there is any company that would buy Xbox division outright. There is some good IP there though.
No, I think getting a new owner is pretty much out of the question. If google, samsung, apple, etc want to have a tv box that plays games, it will undoubtedly look like Amazon's Snapdragon 800 console. A console that is first a multimedia device, a games box a distant second, and priced at $149-$199.
SneakyStephan
Banned
We could own a chair on the board of directors in 5 years time. DO IT
Who would we appoint.
maybe dennis, he'll assure the next xbox runs all games at 4k res 1 fps and every button on the controller is a screenshot button.
Chobel
Member
HAH!
killer rin
Member
Once the One launches, the Xbox Team gets reorged into the newly made OS and Hardware branches of the company. That will cement their safety for the time being because they will be more tightly integrated into the company.
The same goes for Windows Phone next year once Blue ships.
The same goes for Windows Phone next year once Blue ships.
KillerTravis
Banned
Maybe he will learn how profitable the Xbox division is now.
The answer is not very, at least compared to their other divisions and considering the money sink that is a console hardware launch.
?. Killing xbox doesn't mean those people wont have jobs elsewhere in MS. In fact, that is part of the reason there is a push for the axing of consumer initiatives, that is being able to put valuable talented people to work in more profitable areas.
Yeah, I guess he doesn't know shit as opposed to the vast insider knowledge that we Gaffers possess.
They didn't make a single dollar of profit after 10 years on Xbox Division but they lost a lot money.
0.8% of shares. 15 biggest. Even on board of directors he will have small to none influence.
killer rin
Member
Which brings on why their safety is cemented for the time being. And that is because within the new Reorg, Microsoft will be becoming a devices and services company at heart. With that in mind, the Board of Directors will be more defensive over their consumer offerings to keep the devices and services mantra in line. Once the reorg comes around, Xbox essentially becomes a major player within the devices area of the company so it would turn into a major struggle for people who wanted to drop it unless they had a really good alternative for the devices area of the company which would replace it.
Also remember that even though ValuAct will have a seat with 1% Stock, they are still going up against Bill Gates who has 5%, Ballmer who will likely continue to hold 3-4% upon retiring, and the rest of the board which has stocks ranging from 1-3%.
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
Or a person who had the main objective to get on that board made too much noise to get to this position just got it. He will not do anythign to Xbone now that he got a seat on the board of directors.
Proven by the amount of people that think ValueAct is responsible for Ballmer retiring.
Some people worried about the possibility of this happening but I dunno, I think the only way it could be a bad thing would be if they got bought by Baidu or some other Chinese company that would probably drastically change the approach to centre more on that market.
If they got bought by a western company though, say a company that's wanted to be in games forever, say Amazon or Google, we could end up with an Xbox brand that's run by people who actually understand consumers rather than ones who are just good at throwing money at problems until they go away.
Hate to think what Xbox would cost though, in a market where start ups with half decent mapping ideas are worth billions, what do you charge for a department with an actual revenue model and millions of paying members.
If they got bought by a western company though, say a company that's wanted to be in games forever, say Amazon or Google, we could end up with an Xbox brand that's run by people who actually understand consumers rather than ones who are just good at throwing money at problems until they go away.
Hate to think what Xbox would cost though, in a market where start ups with half decent mapping ideas are worth billions, what do you charge for a department with an actual revenue model and millions of paying members.
....you do know these people have a lot of money invested in the company, right? You also know because of that they want to see costs go down, revenue go up, and as a result see bigger profits, right?
just making sure
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