Investors feel they are not going to step in a land mine -- that's brought money back to the sector.

In one fell swoop, nearly $33 billion is getting rotated out of equity into cash and I do believe a good portion of that will find its way back into Microsoft.

This is just part of the software world. And because there's a remedy for these problems, investors don't lose too much sleep over it.

Things continue to be difficult -- software management teams and salespeople are not seeing a pickup in software buying.

It's very much steady Eddie. Microsoft showed nice growth and better levels of profitability.

Everybody was prepped by Oracle's news a month ago. Expectations were going down.

For a company with great profitability and a near monopoly, it would certainly not be unheard of to pay two to three times the growth rate. So paying 25 times earnings for one of the strongest technology companies with an awesome franchise is fair.

This is the one legal issue that was a big thorn in Microsoft's side and most people were led to believe is that this would drag on and on and on.

A lot of the shortfalls are being blamed on the onset of the war so investors are giving the software companies a pass this quarter.

Strategically, the deal makes sense. I would have liked the deal better if it wasn't part of a series of acquisitions ... but I still think the positives outweigh the negatives.