Microsoft

Awaiting Microsoft's cuts

The uncertainty surrounding Microsoft's cost-cutting plan is likely to last only another day, until the software maker announces earnings Thursday.

That's when many people expect the company will detail its plans, which will likely include the company's first-ever companywide layoffs.

In the absence of hard facts, the guessing game goes on. I was fond of Todd Bishop's post at TechFlash on "Five things we really wouldn't miss" if Microsoft cut them.

Zune hardware tops the list, which also includes Microsoft's little-known YouTube rival Soapbox, and its search business. Although it seems very … Read more

Microsoft's Photosynth captures inaugural moment

Microsoft's Photosynth is an impressive tool for stitching together dozens of photos to allow a place or event to be viewed from multiple angles.

The only hard part is it really takes 75 photos or more to get the optimal experience. That's a lot of work for one photographer. But, with big events, one can also rely on crowdsourcing. Which is what CNN has done with the inaugural, asking viewers to send in their photos of Barack Obama's swearing in.

The resulting Photosynth is pretty cool. (It requires Silverlight for viewing.)

For Microsoft, it marks a high-profile … Read more

Microsoft unloads Comcast stake

Microsoft has sold all of its shares in Comcast, according to an SEC filing made on Friday.

As of its latest public disclosure in March, the software maker held 150.9 million shares in the cable company.

Although Microsoft is certainly not hard up for cash, the move comes as the company is weighing a range of cuts, including layoffs as it deals with the weak economy.

Microsoft took the huge stake in the cable industry as part of its effort to become a player in interactive television. Although it scored minor deals with Comcast over the years, its biggest … Read more

Where will Microsoft cut?

It's not just Steve Ballmer who is searching Microsoft to look for potential areas to cut.

Now, reporters are getting in on the act.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an interesting piece up adding up the cost of a number of employee perks. The paper reports that Microsoft isn't necessarily planning to cut the morale-boosters, but says it has seen a PowerPoint presentation that calculates their cost.

All those free sodas, juices, and cartons of milk, for example, cost Microsoft $20 million a year. The shuttle that takes Microsoft workers from building to building around its campus costs $14 … Read more

Ballmer and Bostock break bread

Well, it's official, Microsoft and Yahoo have come to an agreement.

On lunch.

As first noted by Valleywag, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock had lunch together this week in New York. The New York Times has a lengthy piece up now as well, confirming the meeting, but offering no clue as to what happened beyond, presumably, caloric consumption.

In any case, it's the second high-level contact this week, given that incoming Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz told employees that she, too, had talked with Ballmer.

Microsoft has made it clear in every way imaginable that … Read more

Opera executive praises EU move

In a case of convenient timing, Opera Software's top developer happened to be in CNET's office just after Microsoft disclosed that the European Union has objected to Microsoft's bundling of a Web browser into Windows.

"We think it is right of the EU, for the sake of the consumers, to be concerned about someone potentially misusing their competitive power," Chief Development Officer Christen Krogh told CNET News. The EU action stems from a 2007 complaint by Opera.

Krogh said the Internet is too important for consumer choice to be limited. Developers of software and services, … Read more

EU notice to Microsoft re browser

Note: Below is the text of a press release from the European Commission regarding Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system.

Brussels, 16th January 2009

Antitrust: Commission confirms sending a Statement of Objections to Microsoft on the tying of Internet Explorer to Windows

The European Commission can confirm that it has sent a Statement of Objections (SO) to Microsoft on 15th January 2009. The SO outlines the Commission's preliminary view that Microsoft's tying of its web browser Internet Explorer to its dominant client PC operating system Windows infringes the EC Treaty rules on abuse … Read more

EU regulating Microsoft like it's 1999

Updated 3:20 p.m. with comment from antitrust attorney.

The European Union's new complaint against Microsoft really takes one back. Like, a decade or so.

Its objection--that bundling a browser into the operating system violates antitrust law--is the same one that U.S. regulators raised in 1996.

The newest allegations stem from a 2007 complaint by Norway's Opera that Microsoft was hurting competition by including Internet Explorer in Windows and by not better adhering to Web standards.

What is most odd about the EU taking up the issue is its timing. The EU spent years going after … Read more

EU objects to browser in Windows

Updated at 8:33 a.m. PST January 17, with comments from Opera and antitrust attorneys in Brussels.

European regulators notified Microsoft it believes the software giant is in violation of the region's antitrust laws by bundling its Internet Explorer browser in Windows, the company said Friday.

The European Commission, which received a complaint in 2007 from rival browser developer Opera that Microsoft was using its market dominance in bundling IE into the Windows operating system, opened its investigation into the tying issue last January.

According to a statement issued by the European Commission:

The evidence gathered during the … Read more