RSSXbox Exec Sold Stock as Problems Mounted
By Ed Oswald | Published July 12, 2007, 11:29 AM
Microsoft's entertainment and devices chief Robbie Bach sold $6.2 million in stock in the two months preceding the company's admission that Xbox repairs had reached an "unacceptable" level.
The hardware problems were said to affect as many as 3 out of every 10 consoles according to some sources. Bach said the company had developed a fix for the issue and was already implementing it into consoles that Microsoft is manufacturing now.
Previous to May 2, when the first sale of stock occurred, Bach had not sold any shares for eight months, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All sales of stock occurred during the month of May, although the close proximity to the negative Xbox news has caused some concern. While Bach was not available to comment, a company representative inferred that some were reading too much into the move, and that he "remains confident in the long-term success of the company."
In some cases, executives will set up pre-arranged selling dates in order to avoid the appearance of selling stocks based on insider information. However, Bach's trades were not done as part of a regularly scheduled plan.
Some are sticking up for Bach, noting that the announcement of Xbox 360 problems has had little effect on Microsoft's stock. It had regained all but about 20 cents of its opening price last Thursday as of this morning.
pc ftw??
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|I can see why people would get worked up over something like this, but it's really a non-issue. You didn't have to be a corporate insider to know that the 360 was having a ton of failures, all you had to do is read Joystiq and you could tell that this was going to be a problem. While, no one likes to see insiders dumping the stock, it's also an important part of attracting and retaining talent. The 360 has had it's fair share of problems, but it's also been remarkably successful as well. Nothing to see here, move along.
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|Actually, it's not a 'non-issue'. You're right, anyone following the 360 knew about the issues with the hardware, but none of the shareholders knew about the $1b reported losses they were going to take. If he sold this stock, with the knowledge that they were going to be taking this loss, then it's not only unethical, it's illegal.
I own a 360, but with the slew of problems with the hardware, both addressed by MS and the ones they won't aknowledge publicly, I'm to the point of just playing on my last generation equipment (PS2 and Xbox).
If only it wasn't so hard to find a Wii...
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|Can we say, "insider information?"
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|Seems Microsoft knew the 360 was a hunk of junk, and sold their stock VERY QUICKLY
Seems every single Xbox is faulty. Never mind, Microsoft have a new Halo3 model out soon you can buy $$$$$...
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|Thats funny because mine works just fine. I'll turn it on and play the awesome new Ace Combat 6 demo for yah if you want me to. It looks quite amazing by the way. It's a shame you Sony fanboys can't play it.
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|Mine works great, day 1 box.
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|It's only a matter of time before yours hits the dust (if you are infact telling the truth).
Every single Xbox360 is faulty. Some are still hanging in there, sure, but it will happen...
Microsoft has said so, and we all know you believe everything Microsoft tells you...
http://www.theinquirer.n...ault.aspx?article=40933
Still there is a new version out soon, you can buy one of those 360's You might be lucky, they may have fixed the overheating problems, (then again, the Elites are still broken, so perhaps not). LOL
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|Seems every single box is faulty look at the article or can you not read? We already know the answer to that question. What part of as many as 3 out of every 10 consoles are effected did you miss. That is AS MANY AS I guess in your deluted little world 3 out of 10 equals 100%.
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|How long until my PS3 stops reading disks is my question. Seems to be history with Sony drives.
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|Steve I'm begging you for just this once use that little squishy thing between your ears. If MS themselves said that 100% of their consoles where faulty, then don't you think there would be a few more articles on it then just from theinquirer.
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|As you have been told on many occasions, making up details about PS2 faults just makes you look an idiot..
The PS3 is quality hardware, something as an Xbox owner, I doubt you understand..
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|Man you you are really blind to reality. The PS2 did have and still has issues with reading disks. The internet is full of articles about it. The ones you come with about 100% comes from the inquirer yeah thats a good one.
$ony stopped making quality hardware about a decade ago. The PS3 quality that never gets turned on, I guess it won't break so that part is true.
FUD away there FUD master.
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|You shouldn't believe anything The Inquirer tells you they are bias.
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|Too right!
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|Sony Drives have this issue outside the psX world. the computer drives are just as flaky, 4 drives later im using a cheap offbrand thats been chugging away for longer than the previous combined.
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|"As you have been told on many occasions, making up details about PS2 faults just makes you look an idiot.."
LMAO looks like your the idiot! http://www.google.com/se...GL,GGGL:2006-32,GGGL:en
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|They didn't exactly release a press statement saying all of them are faulty. Still, let's all jump on a bandwangon here, make a huge deal out of it, get some good positive spin going!!11
Jesus Christ, some people here seem to have no better way to validate themselves in life than war over a console. Unless you work for the company and are going to be out of a job, who gives a s*** unless your life is really that empty?
I used to try and make intelligent and construsctive posts attempting to illustrate spin from both fan camps, but honestly, I just couldn't care less anymore. But I do have to voice just how sad it is seeing some others doing it.
All I will say is if a company screws up, and admits to it and handles it for people, that's pretty decent as most companies will refuse to acknowledge a problem if they realize it will be very costly.
Be it MS, Sony, or the RIAA owning to making mistakes - I'd respect any company who dares to.
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|Wow. I dont think that the people in here "have no better way to validate themselves". They are participating in a debate about this topic. They are not putting their lifes efforts into defending one side or another. This is a debate, thats what you do. I think you questioning how other people are living their lives is the problem. Concentrate on living your own. I like reading the comments on here presenting different sides, its when people get personal with people, that it gets out of line.
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|So many people here have been proven to be liars when the comment says as much as 3 out of 10 effected by the quality problem. He also states a fix has been found. Maybe you haters use selective reading. Yes 3 out of 10 is bad but if they can be fixed what is the problem? That is more than Sony has ever done for the customer. There was a mistake and there is a fix.
Like I have said before I have about ten games preordered for the 360 I have none for the PS3 that tells me something about the PS3. It remains to be seem how realible the PS3 is and not having games is still a serious problem. There have been games announced but they are still a long way off. 360 has great games out now!!
Chime in fanboys I'm sure you will with your fanboy websites and unrealible sources.
I am looking forward to new games for the 360 and Wii this coming holiday season.
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|"Yes 3 out of 10 is bad but if they can be fixed what is the problem?"
(Mine was bought in September last year so not the first batch which already showed the problem. )
Well it's like this.
I spent 3 days on the phone to several people in India, waiting 30 minutes a time to get to speak to a human, before I got one who spoke good enough English AS WELL as being competent enough to get a collection sorted. My 360 was collected a week later and I was told the turnaround time for the UK is now 6 weeks.
So I'm sat here with CM DiRT which I bought a fotnight ago and have been unable to play and have at least another month to wait. I have three Live! Gold accounts on this console which I'm paying for whilst it sits somewhere waiting to get the problem they knew about fixed. At best I'll get offered a month free on one as compensation.
That's what the problem is.
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|Sorry to hear about your problem with getting you system fixed. This is my honest experience. I called June the 29 on the phone with India for about 15 minutes to explain problem, they shiped a box to me arrived at my door on the 3rd, to late to ship back same day, droped off at UPS on the 5th, arrived in Texas for repairs on July 9th, recieved notification that my repaired unit shipped out this morning. I am very happy with this service. Sorry to hear about your long wait. Hope it all works out for you.
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|"There was a mistake and there is a fix." For the motherboard and c clamp problems. Unfortunately, they have yet to address any of the problems with the DVD drive: scratching, and the drives that won't read 360 discs.
The lawsuit that was filed a few days ago, uses a Dutch tv program that ran tests to prove the scratching problem, and MS's subsequent admission and replacement program, as part of the basis for their suit. Xbox.com's message boards have numerous threads from people with these problems, as do many other forums. I supported MS with both of their consoles, but I have to say: MS may have the best games, and online service, but frankly...their hardware sucks.
I'm curious to see how the story about the stock plays out...
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|They were in to much of a hurry to get the Xbox 360 out before all the other 'Next Gen' consoles.
Oh well.
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|Rats deserting a sinking ship...
http://www.theinquirer.n...ault.aspx?article=40933
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|i think this is nonsense. The XBox Division has been bleeding money ever since it was formed.
When the 360 fails, it really is not going to affect Micro$oft's bottom line. The failure of the first generation XBox did not affect it either.
The guy has lots of stock...maybe he just needed some money to buy a mansion or something. who knows.
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|The 360 will do fine once the units are fixed. Don't forget that Sony is bleeding more than MS right now.
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|I'm not so sure that I would call the original Xbox a 'failure'. I've had mine since the 1.1 revision, and it's still running strong to this day.
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|It is a failure because the PS2 crushed it. Micro$oft rushed out the 360 hoping that an early start would win the next generation. Now you see all the problems that rush has created.
And to top it off, the Wii is on track to crush the 360. So i am just logically concluding in my other posts that they will rush out the XBox 720 once the Wii has dwarfed their installed base in this generation.
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|Does that mean, by your logic, that the Sega Genesis was a failure, as well?
Sorry, but it was far from a failure. It just wasn't the top dog, that generation. It had phenomonal games, and set the bar for online console gaming. it was also the most technologically advanced that gen.
I agree with you though, that MS rushed the 360 to launch. Hopefully they can get all of the issues fixed, though. As I've said before, they have some of the best games out right now, and Live blows everything else away.
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|Sony are not having to stump up $1.2 billion a year to fix faulty consoles. Their losses in total are $2 billion, and are startup costs. Microsoft has the same startup costs for the 360.
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|The SNES did win that generation (it was by about 11 million), but nothing like Nintendo is on pace to do this generation.
The Genesis was inferior to the SNES in many areas:
1) much smaller color palatte
2) crappy sound chip
3) lack of hardware features such as scaling
4) lower screen resolution
The only thing it has was a faster CPU, if you solely look at MHz, which is poor way to measure CPU performance anyhow. But Intel, at that time, had everyone convinced MHz was what mattered....notice today no one talks MHz?
"...and set the bar for online console gaming"
The Genesis had no means of going online, especially since the internet was just coming together and Lynx was the s***. I think Mosaic might have just been together as well as the first Netscape browser. dial up....LOL!!!!!!!!
If you look at the numbers, yes, the PS2 completely destroyed the XBox, and oddly enough, is outselling the 360 today!
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|"...and set the bar for online console gaming"
Sorry, I neglected to be specific, and point out that I was refering to the original Xbox at that point in my post.
Regardless of the typo, I think you're missing the point. Both consoles were very successful, and widely adopted. When I think of a failure in the console world, I think of the 3DO, Virtual Boy, or the Saturn.
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|How much did Sony lose last year replacing NOTEBOOK BATTERIES THAT CAUSED FIRE AND DEATH? The expense of that and over all impact makes this production line level of issues petty compaired to that in cost and risk.. Please stop being a rediculous Sony fan and being lame.
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|how much money does Microsoft lose to piracy because they have an overpriced os? Oh yea its totally unrelated... kinda like you bringing up batteries for their notebooks.
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|Just as a note, the PS2 is also crushing the PS3, even more than it is crushing the 360.
Strange. People prefer an outdated ( since the updated version is out ) version.
Shows very little confidence in the new version.
In any case, MS will do what MS does best, capture market share by undercutting the competition and using their incredible amount of funds to do so.
Unfortunatel for Sony, their tactic to beat MS cant be to bleed money also, it must be something different, much like the Wii is doing for Nintendo.
They made a smart move in realizing that they could never compete with MS on the same field, because MS will just throw money at something until they are proven the winner.
So unless SOny does the same, MS will beat Sony from hear on out.
Its just the MS way.
Here is hoping we have more consoles and more games.
Not less and less.
That, i believe, is what all true gamers should want.
Latz, SB
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|And the PS2 is outselling the PS3 so it also must be a failure in your world then!
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|yes, the PS3 is a failure too
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|or the XBox
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|At least there are fixing the problem, SOny has ignored read errors for years.
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|Hmm...Maybe your not Steve lol. He could never bring himself to say that even though it is the truth.
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|Like I have to the other guy sourcing The Inquirer on "Microsoft quotes". The Inquirer is very bias and you shouldn't believe everything they say.
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