I Hate Microsoft and Shareholders Should Too

Check out this chart. MSFT data by YCharts

Granted, Microsoft isn't in nearly as bad shape as Research in Motion (RIMM) (yet), but some of the same principles apply.

I'm talking about principles of investing, not similarities between the two companies, even though there are many.

RIMM bulls who trashed the bears misdirected their anger. It's the same thing MSFT (and Intel (INTC)) bulls do today.

They attacked admittedly outspoken messengers such as myself for playing things as they lay.

Think about the illogic.

RIM, for instance, not only butchered 2011, it waited until the last possible minute to lower full year guidance. The company pressed on with an overly optimistic outlook until it could no longer keep up the jig.

There's no question in my mind that the way RIM executives communicated on conference calls and such during the early-to-middle stages of RIM's implosion kept more than a few people in the stock.

Holding RIMM for just a little bit longer did not end well.

Instead of demanding answers from management, RIM bulls displayed unflinching loyalty, branding the bears not only as bad guys, but crooked evildoers.

If you're a MSFT shareholder or just a PC diehard, don't make the same mistake.

Guys like me did not create Microsoft's problems. We're not responsible for the worse-than-stagnant stock over the past five years, which, mind you, has been a transformative time across the tech space.

We didn't fall asleep at the wheel; Steve Ballmer did.

Send him your scorn, not your loyalty.

Doing the opposite is nothing but a recipe for losing more money than you already have on a dead stock.

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Rocco Pendola is TheStreet's Director of Social Media. Pendola's daily contributions to TheStreet frequently appear on CNBC and at various top online properties, such as Forbes.

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