Microsoft loss on Bing: $5.5bn

Microsoft's rival to Google in search engine space is surely an expensive bet for the company. According to a report in CNNMoney, Microsoft has lost almost $5.5 billion on Bing since its debut in June 2009, and the company continues to lose nearly $1 billion a quarter. The report also says that ever since Microsoft began breaking out the finances of its online division in 2007, the division has lost a whopping $9 billion. However, the huge losses don't seem to have dampened Microsoft's plans for the search engine. The company's president of online services Qi Lu recently reportedly told a group of financial analysts that the path for Bing's profitability is not to "out-Google", but instead change the way people use search. For most companies a loss in these proportions would mean troubled times or may be even in some cases shutting down. However, not for Microsoft, with its $53 billion pile of cash and short-term investments.