Reuters: Microsoft CEO says to double ad revenue in 5 years

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer told shareholders that the software giant would catch up to and surpass search leader Google, but his estimates for ad revenue growth over the next five years open up questions as to whether or not he intends that to be a long-term eventuality. Ballmer told the meeting that Microsoft's ad revenues would double over five years - which sounds large, but represents only a compound growth rate of about 15 percent (a point completely missed by journalists covering the event). If Microsoft doubled its 2004 ad revenues of $360 million, it would only approach about a quarter of the ad revenues generated today by Google, which presumably would have grown at least slightly over the course of 20 quarters.