[olalonde]

Microsoft should start thinking about acquiring a web company instead. One day, they will look back and realize that, in retrospective, they shouldn't have held on to the desktop. An analogy could be made with newspapers who held on to the paper. Time might prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

[Niten]

For my part, I'm glad there are still companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe "holding onto the desktop", selling me software that I can run on my own hardware, allowing me to keep my data to myself.

[keithwarren]

I dont understand this, you seem to think that Microsoft has ignored the web when they are in fact one of the largest web companies on the planet. There is almost no company they could buy who would not overlap in concerns. You might argue that some companies are better at certain things or have larger customer bases but this idea that they should buy a web company and quit holding on to the desktop is just goofy.

All that said, one important web asset MSFT doesnt have a strong play in is web analytics.

[krf]

They have thought about - MS tried to buy Yahoo. Didn't work - not too many other alternatives - maybe they'll try again. Don't forget also that MS owns a chunk of Facebook. MS is starting to go big on the cloud too, so they are getting into position slowly but surely for the future...