Mainly, Ballmer and others used the day to defend the company's massive and so far unrewarded investment in online search and advertising, contending that the software power was the only real threat to Google and that a major "ante" in search was the best shot at a $1-trillion market for Internet media.
Without Yahoo, Ballmer said, Microsoft has more flexibility in its approach to search.
"There is a huge, huge, huge new opportunity around the Net and online, and we need to embrace that opportunity," he said. "We're anteing, we're reinventing."
He suggested that Microsoft would continue to sacrifice 5% to 10% of its operating income to invest in the area.
Several investors and analysts said they accepted Ballmer's contention that the Internet was crucial and that search and search-based advertising were too important to ignore.
"A lot of people agree that the strategy is right. The devil is in the details and the execution," said money manager Michael Lippert of Baron Capital, which owns Microsoft shares. "I'm hard-pressed to see it without an acquisition."
Analysts said they also had doubts about Ballmer's claims that Microsoft had the right people to take on Google in search, given its past efforts.
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joseph.menn@latimes.com
