Readers Report
What Mankind Needs: Less Whining from Scott McNealy
Sun Microsystems CEO Scott G. McNealy thinks mankind needs a break from Microsoft Corp. ("Face-off," Cover Story, Nov. 19). What mankind really needs is a break from McNealy's incessant whining. Many people and businesses complain about Microsoft's monopoly. None has bothered to offer a superior product. Instead, they have used the government as a strategic weapon to cover their inability to develop something better. Microsoft may have a monopoly with Windows and Office, but it hasn't come close to the same level of domination on the Web. If it had, America Online Inc. wouldn't still be around.
Technology writers from many publications have pointed out many flaws, weak areas, poor designs, and glitches in Microsoft products. What does it say about the rest of the software industry that Microsoft was able to achieve a monopoly with such imperfect products? Innovation won't happen just because the government suppresses Microsoft.
William A. Kirsten
Gaylord, Mich.
We have been reading Scott McNealy's "trash talk" for years. I would suggest he start concentrating on his own company's failings.
W. Donald Sally
Lake Forest, Ill.
If McNealy could just hold on for a few years, perhaps he could find another Administration like that of Bill Clinton. He could again donate heavily to the Democratic Party and again get them to shackle his competition.
Come on McNealy: Suck it up, and compete like a big boy!
Joe R. Donathan
Centennial, Colo.
Scott McNealy's outlandish attacks on Bill Gates and Microsoft, and his sophomoric humor, make one wonder why Sun Microsystems stockholders put up with this overgrown child.
Norman Cohen
Potomac, Md.
Write the Right Laws to Rein in Software Makers
Animals that prey on others are usually successful only against the old and the lame. That is all that Microsoft has done ("Settlement or sellout?" Cover Story, Nov. 19). WordPerfect failed to innovate, so Word won. Lotus failed to innovate, so Excel won. Netscape never stood a chance as a stand-alone, so Internet Explorer won. Microsoft had nothing with which to compete when it took these entities on, so it beat them fair and square.
Microsoft has not beaten RealAudio, Adobe Systems, Intuit, Norton, and many others, because those companies innovated and improved their products. We the consumers and users have only stood to gain by letting the better innovator vanquish the lesser. Microsoft should use everything in its arsenal to compete. That is inherent in our economic system.
Richard S. Mitnick
Highland Park, N.J.
If lawmakers had made software developers accountable for the operation of their wares, the Microsoft debacle could have been avoided. Microsoft would have had to recall products that crashed. It would have been less tempted to develop "bloatware" and bundle others' products into its own, lest it cause crashes. Taxpayers would have saved a lot of money.
Tony Payne
Hong Kong
"Slapping Microsoft's wrist" (Editorials, Nov. 19) relies heavily on Scott McNealy's constant mischaracterizations of the Microsoft settlement. The piece recites the vague and sometimes blatantly inaccurate complaints about the settlement that are often cited by Microsoft's largest rivals.
Coming after three years of litigation, the settlement between the Justice Dept. and Microsoft should finally allow the software industry to get back to work full-time. We in the industry hope that McNealy got the message.
Jonathan Zuck
Association for
Competitive Technology
Washington
What if that softie [antitrust chief] Charles James limited what BusinessWeek could charge at the newsstand?
Patrick M. Code
Alpena, Mich.
There's Nothing Wrong with Accounting Principles
The Financial Accounting Standards Board unequivocally agrees with your statement, "Without integrity in financial reporting, the U.S. cannot hope to remain the preeminent place to invest in the global marketplace" ("End the numbers game," Editorials, Nov. 26). Unfortunately, much of the remaining editorial reflects a misunderstanding of FASB. FASB is a standard-setting body whose mission is to promote high-quality reporting, aimed at producing integrity in financial statements. FASB has no control, nor can it exercise any authority, over a company's statements about its earnings--including so-called pro forma earnings. That is the province of audit committees, auditors, and the Securities & Exchange Commission.
In FASB's view, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) numbers provide the most reliable picture of a company's true earnings. Despite the issues BusinessWeek raises about the usefulness of GAAP numbers, it is interesting to note that Enron Corp. is now restating its numbers to conform with GAAP. Given the concerns voiced about inflated earnings, it is ironic that the GAAP earnings-per-share number referenced in relation to Thomson Financial/First Call and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is by far the least inflated.
FASB recently added a new project on financial-performance reporting to its agenda. The objective is to improve the quality of information displayed in financial statements, to help investors and creditors evaluate a company's performance based on GAAP. Because the FASB does not have authority over how a company describes itself in press releases, analyst presentations, and similar media, this new project will not address pro forma earnings.
Edmund L. Jenkins
Chairman
Financial Accounting
Standards Board
Norwalk, Conn.
Will Merrill Lynch Still Welcome Small Accounts?
"Shaking up Merrill" was most disturbing to me, a longtime "small account client" at Merrill Lynch & Co. (Management, Nov. 12). For many years, I have had a comfortable, friendly, trustful relationship with my brokers there--what you called the Merrill culture. Experiencing this over a number of years made it easy to select Merrill as the corporate trustee for my estate.
However, the new drive in Merrill's personal services to "focus squarely on courting the rich" makes me feel I am being dealt out of doing business in what was a welcoming, receptive environment. Any advice on where I can find the old "Merrill culture" elsewhere?
A.F. Kaulakis
Rye, N.Y.
One Vocal TIAA-CREF Investor Is No Proxy for All
I fail to see how Neil Wollman's assertion that he decided not to make the proxy deadline acts as a case "against" TIAA-CREF's current practices ("Let shareholders decide this one," BusinessWeek Investor, Nov. 19). Wollman may not agree with the proxy-vote system, but this doesn't lend him any more credibility than anyone who actually participates in it. Why should I (or TIAA-CREF CEO John Biggs) allow him to take us all down by bending the rules?
David Charles Ptak
Pittsburgh
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