Improving Communication Skills (one of the best resources for determining the soundness of an investment opportunity is a corporation`s annual report. An annual report will tell you about you about a company`s management,its past performance ,and its futu

What does the CEO / President say about the company 's past performance and future projections ? According to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer , The Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft respectively , Microsoft invested an industry-leading 6 .6 billion dollars in product research , leading to its 5000th patent . It also invested massive amounts of money in acquiring companies that help broaden its technological advantage . As a result , the strong demand for the company 's products , such as Microsoft (R ) Officetm and Microsoft (R Windowstm , coupled with the market dominance of

its new products , Xbox 360tm , Microsoft (R ) SQL Servertm 2005 , Visual Studio (R ) 2005 , Microsoft Dynamicstm CRM 3 .0 , and BizTalk (R ) Server 2006 , have all contributed towards record-breaking performance for Microsoft in its 30th year

For 2007 , Microsoft sees strong growth fueled by a steady increase in worldwide PC shipments as well as by the dominance of the Xbox 360 gaming system in the computer gaming industry

Is the firm profitable ? Are profits increasing or decreasing

The fact that the company is able to declare cash dividends for shares in its company shows that the company is profitable , as it is illegal for a company to declare cash dividends without earning profits notwithstanding the large amounts spent in research and in corporate acquisitions

The report proudly shows that the net income of Microsoft as a whole reached a record high in 2006 as compared to any other period in the company 's history . As a result , the company 's diluted earnings per share also reached a high-water mark this year

Finally , the success of the share repurchase program should concentrate power to a smaller amount of stockholders and work in favor of those retaining an interest in Microsoft , increasing the amount of cash dividends actually received

What significant trends for this company are illustrated in its annual report

The report showed a decrease in the maximum price per share of the company when viewed year-on-year from 28 .16 to 27 .76 per share notwithstanding the completion of an aggressive stock buy-back program which as of June 2006 , repurchased a company stock using its cash resources , with authorization for the repurchase of up to 36 .2 billion dollars worth of outstanding stock up to 2011

However , the fundamentals of the company remain solid , with revenue up 11 and operating income up 13 year-on-year , allowing the company to reach record heights in revenue and profitability

On the basis of your examination of its annual report would you invest in this company

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tm as a universal standard operating system means that their network integration software for professionals should enjoy best-of-breed status for being able to completely exploit the features of Microsoft 's other programs

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