Five Companies That Dropped The Ball This Week

Microsoft Reports First Quarterly Loss, Also Finds Self In EU's Crosshairs

Microsoft had a rough week: First, the software giant admitted it failed to live up to a 2009 agreement with the European Commission that it would give consumers a choice of web browsers with Windows. Microsoft also reported its first quarterly loss as a public company, the result of a $6.2 billion charge from its botched 2007 acquisition of online advertising firm aQuantive. The lesson here is that chasing Google can be expensive.