CeBIT Bombs! Was it MS anemia?

The first CeBit event in America (the European version has been packing them in for years) didn't quite live up to expectations. They were predicting 40,000 people. They got about 15,000. What was the problem?

I know why I wasn't there. I was even favored with a special, cost-free invite and I still didn't go. (Wellllllll ... traveling to New York for a few days is expensive under ANY circumstance ... but CeBIT wasn't asking for any money.) I was tempted, but after examining the show page I saw Oracle, Java, Sun .... even Japan's NTT -- but no Microsoft. Nobody even close!

Finally, after a dedicated search, I discovered that they were sharing some space in somebody else's booth.

As the Visual Basic Guide, CeBIT didn't offer anything for me! But to pretend that the whole .NET Foundation thing just doesn't exist! Gimmeabreak! Maybe others felt the same way? You think?