According to a rece3nt article in Forbes, Adobe discontinued is practice of "stack ranking," (a system that requires managers to fire their worst people every year. The article proposes that this change in its employee management practices could be a cause of the stock increase. Is it possible that Microsoft believes this too. The article makes for a good read, and intimates that conversion to the subscription model may not be the cause of its stock increase. I freely confess that I don't know the answer. <[URL]http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/11/29/adobes-stock-up-68-since-it-dumped-stack-ranking-will-microsofts-follow/>[/URL]