Microsoft: Time To Plot A Comeback

It happened. Microsoft is now the underdog to Google in the game of technology world domination

Wendy Tanaka, Forbes, 10.19.07, 6:00 AM ET

BURLINGAME, CALIF. -

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant faces growing competition in its core software business, which dominated the industry for two decades, and it hasn’t had a bottom line-galvanizing success in any other area recently. It was late to online advertising, letting Google all but run away with that sector. It hasn’t had a big Web 2.0 hit yet. Thank god for Halo 3!

But Steve Ballmer isn’t worried. The bombastic chief executive of Microsoft was brimming with confidence and good cheer about the company’s future at the Web 2.0 conference on Thursday in San Francisco. He told a packed room that Microsoft is working hard on several fronts so it can become a "three- or four-trick pony," holding onto the top spot in business software, but also becoming a force in search, advertising and entertainment.

Just give Microsoft a little more time, Ballmer said.

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