Willamette Week "Window Dressing" article.
Please do also read The Economist cover story expose on 8/7/99, a publication known to be Bill Gates' favorite with respect to finance and economics. This article, for which a link is provided below, builds on revelations made in the Willamette Week and quotes a London research firm that a proper accounting indicates Microsoft actually lost $18 billion rather than earning the reported $4.5 billion for the year ended 6/30/98.
More astonishing to me and not noted in the article is that for the year ended 6/30/99 Microsoft looks to have claimed a tax deduction of more than $10 billion for wage expenses that do not appear on its earnings statement, thereby grossly inflating net income.
My sincere hope is that a mainstream media outlet will do the complete story. This story is important to every American. It could also be done with compelling graphs showing the evolution of this pyramid scheme that has now put the 401K and 403B retirement systems at risk of being plundered just as Charles Keatings schemes plundered the Savings and Loan system and cost a whole generation of depositors their life savings.
Perhaps such a story could embolden the SEC to bring an action against both Microsoft and its external auditor, Deloitte and Touche, for securities fraud if their upcoming audit opinion is not qualified and full disclosure, with graphs, made of these very important financial facts.
Here is The Economist "Share and share unalike" article.
Additional details are also available in my
letter to Arthur Levitt, SEC Chairman.
Below is a graph summarizing this financial pyramid scheme.
Right-click to download the
Excel
calculations. If you download using Netscape and can't open the spreadsheet, send e-mail to bill@billparish.com requesting it as a file attachment.