Don’t get too excited. Taking the U.S. definition of “billion” and MS’s cash reserve of $65 billion (last time I read about it):
echo “scale=2; 65000/2.4″ | bc
27083.33 (days)
Let’s imagine MS has that cash in some very modest bank account, drawing a simple 2% per year, and let’s ignore any growth of the original $65 billion. Interest will be $1300 million per year, or $3.5 million per day.
The penalty looks a bit puny, now, doesn’t it? Having a global, lucrative monopoly that has been maintained by illegal means for many years without any significant impedance from any government gives one a comfortable cushion against further slaps on the wrist by mere governments.
Don’t get too excited. Taking the U.S. definition of “billion” and MS’s cash reserve of $65 billion (last time I read about it):
echo “scale=2; 65000/2.4″ | bc
27083.33 (days)
Let’s imagine MS has that cash in some very modest bank account, drawing a simple 2% per year, and let’s ignore any growth of the original $65 billion. Interest will be $1300 million per year, or $3.5 million per day.
The penalty looks a bit puny, now, doesn’t it? Having a global, lucrative monopoly that has been maintained by illegal means for many years without any significant impedance from any government gives one a comfortable cushion against further slaps on the wrist by mere governments.