Microsoft’s stock price suffers more than usual on days that it ships software updates to plug security holes, new research suggests. With few exceptions, Redmond issues security updates on the second Tuesday of each month. Microsoft implemented what’s known as “Patch Tuesday” several years ago in order to give companies more time to plan for testing and rolling out the updates. It also began disclosing each Thursday prior how many security problems customers could expect to have to deal with on Patch Tuesday. Microsoft did all this in the name of increasing the predictability of its patching process. But according to researchers at McAfee Avert Labs, the other predictable part of Patch Tuesday and Advance Notification Thursday is that Microsoft’s stock price almost always sinks on those days relative to other trading days. On average, Patch Tuesday saw Microsoft’s stock price fall -0.11 percent in 2006, -0.29 percent last year,
No Comments • Trackback • Permalink •