Slide 10 of the Microsoft/LinkedIn investor presentation caught our eye:
Source: Slide 10 of presentation with “Microsoft and LinkedIn Conference Call” 13 June 2016.
Microsoft’s 2012 claim that a billion people use Office has now grown to 1.2 billion! We weren’t the only ones to point out how extreme that claim was. It’s surprising to see this barely credible claim resurface and in an investor presentation too.
The ‘billion user’ claim might be true, but it’s hard to believe and deserves to be supported by evidence and independent confirmation. Until then it should be considered a zombie statistic of self-serving origin.
When we asked Microsoft to justify the claim in 2012, we got back scorn, dismay and a cancelled interview as ‘punishment’ for daring to ask an inconvenient question. But no answers to the legitimate query. Perhaps major MSFT investors could get more information from Microsoft?
