Microsoft shares took a dive on Monday – losing more than 5% of their value – after news that it Windows 98 operating system would be delayed yet again, this time pushed back from the first quarter to the second quarter. Adding fuel to the fire, Redmond’s CFO Gregory Maffei was quoted in Barron’s as saying that the company was leery of the current stock price, which had reached a 12-month high and valued the software giant at about $181bn. Maffei referred to the share price as out of whack. The shares responded to the dual attack by dropping $7.25, or 5.26%, to close at $130.6875. Microsoft confirmed the delay in shipping its next generation operating system after an analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co had said it wouldn’t be available until May. Redmond says it delayed the release so that users of Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 will be able to upgrade at the same time, rather than stagger the upgrades by three months.
