Kin listed as at least $240 million writeoff in Microsoft earnings report

Here's a tidbit in today's Microsoft quarterly earnings that we previously overlooked: a $240 million cost of revenue "primarily... resulting from the discontinuation of the Kin phone, offset in part by decreased Xbox 360 console costs." In other words, the company took at least a quarter billion hit due to manufacturing, distribution, and support costs of the Kin (according to Microsoft's definition of "cost of revenue"). We don't know how much Xbox 360 offset, unfortunately, but we can add this figure to the $500 million Danger acquisition and the full marketing cost for the product (which we also don't know, but anecdotally, it was on par with other major campaigns) to reach... well, at least $800 million in regret for the folks in Redmond.

[bloop Posted Jul 23rd 2010 1:36AM]

drop in a bucket for them

[Amusednow Posted Jul 23rd 2010 1:45AM]

They should restart the product and market it as a Xbox 360+ communicator that connects and or controls a 360 or future versions of it over wifi. Why write it off when you can retask it? Xbox live comm or something send/receive messages when your not sitting at the console.

[ftw87 Posted Jul 23rd 2010 2:52AM]

kin still making news even after death

[Carniphage Posted Jul 23rd 2010 2:55AM]

If you divide the $240M by the number of Kins sold.....
...it means each device cost half a million dollars!

Bargain!

C.

[Curious G Posted Jul 23rd 2010 5:14AM]

You can't add the Danger acquisition to this figure. It doesn't work that way. While there were likelyy elements of that intellectual capital that went toward the phone, everything that Microsoft got from Danger is an asset that survives this whole kin thing.

Engadget - you need to stick to what you do best and stop trying to helpfully "reinterpret" 10Ks, cash flow, foreign currency exchange , and other company financial statements for your readers.

[Kiwipoweredkiwi Posted Jul 23rd 2010 7:33AM]

That's so much money for so little.

Must be coverup for blamers half billion dollar secret project to cure baldness. And orangotangitis.

[Ruthless Posted Jul 23rd 2010 7:39AM]

That is ridiculous. Do they know how many starving people there are in Africa... and London... oh, and New York.

That quarter billion dollars could have been spent on providing millions of people with free MS food.

[sethmo Posted Jul 23rd 2010 8:14AM]

@Ruthless of which 54.2% of people would RROD from ill-manufacturing of said food :P

[sethmo Posted Jul 23rd 2010 8:12AM]

I could have saved them 239 million by telling them not to make the Kin from the get go! Of course that 1 million missing would be my consulting fee, but hey, would you rather pay $240 million and make your department look like idiots, or keep your respect and only lose $1 million :P

[Makali Posted Jul 23rd 2010 8:53AM]

Monopoly rules even if you pos OS like windoze 7 least on desktop

[Jake88 Posted Jul 23rd 2010 10:38AM]

You know they might have lost nearly 250 million, but they can still use what they learned and incorporate it into they win 7 mobile platform. I would love to see that.

[MollyC Posted Jul 23rd 2010 10:44AM]

I know that engaged editors orgasmed at the opportunity to post this, but to put things in perspective, Microsoft has paid EU fines larger than that.

[graey Posted Jul 23rd 2010 12:26PM]

Maybe I'm just bad at math or finances, but how can $240 million be AT LEAST a quarter billion? Last time I checked that was actually $250 million...

[kapryt Posted Jul 23rd 2010 1:41PM]

A write off like that 1.6% of facebook MS may or may not own in light of recent wacky events?

http://www.styrofoamsoup.com/tech/facebooks-other-owner/

[LindsS Posted Jul 23rd 2010 2:57PM]

To bad they didn't just stick the Kin in a blender before the fiasco. It would have been well worth it.