Microsoft's Missed Opportunity?

from the buy-Moxi dept

Business 2.0 is suggesting that Microsoft made a mistake when they let Steve Perlman go off and build the company that is now Moxi Digital. In many ways it looks like Moxi will somehow end up competing with Microsoft, even though the UltimateTV (formerly WebTV) division that Perlman used to run is being disbanded. However, I'm not sure I agree with the article here. First, it assumes that Microsoft could have kept Perlman - who seems like hte typical serial entrepreneur. Second, it assumes that the Moxi device is already the player to beat, when there are already others who have quite a bit of market share. Finally, there's no reason to believe that Perlman would have been able to build the same sort of device from within Microsoft. If it's really that big of a deal, then they should give more money to Perlman and buy him back again.