The Ballmer Days Are Over
One thing I never see considered in comparisons to younger or more nimble and retooled competitors is that by 2000, Microsoft was already a convicted monopolist!<p>For the first few years of the decade, the company was still dealing with governments on two continents on what and how they could compete in the software business.<p>As others have mentioned, in this time frame they have also paid <i>billions</i> in dividends.<p>It may well be time for Ballmer to go, but the comparisons in stock price to Apple and Google over these short time frames don't reflect all the context and dynamics of the share prices.