Online services

On Friday, I had a brief phone interview with Kevin Johnson, president of the Microsoft division that includes Windows and Windows Live, shortly after the software giant announced its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. I tried to get more details on the how Microsoft plans to bridge the cultural gap between the two companies, which brands it is tied to and what it will do if Yahoo says no. Sorry, I don't have more concrete answers, but I've posted a pretty complete transcript so you can read for yourself.

What makes you guys feel like the cultural … Read more

Note: Here's the text of the e-mail Steve Ballmer sent to Microsoft employees on Friday, following its $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo.

Subject line: Proposed Acquisition of Yahoo!

Today, I am very excited to announce that Microsoft has made a proposal to acquire Yahoo. This announcement represents a big opportunity for Microsoft, and is the next major milestone in our companywide transformation to embrace online services, search, and advertising.

By combining the strengths of our companies, we can deliver an efficient and highly competitive offering for our customers. Our complementary assets will give us increased talent and … Read more

When you look at the cultural differences between Microsoft and Yahoo, you don't need to look much further than a floor plan.

Microsoft has been a company of offices, where workers toil individually at their piece of a collective project. Yahoo, by contrast is a Silicon Valley archetype where workers sit in cubicles and tend to work collaboratively.

The folks in Redmond are known for being hard-charging and competitive, both internally and externally. Yahoo, meanwhile, tends to be more collaborative, sometimes to the point of inefficiency.

There are philosophical differences as well. Yahoo has been a huge proponent of … Read more

Microsoft is hoping to get advertisers to think beyond search.

In an e-mail sent to reporters and analysts on Thursday, Microsoft's Brian McAndrews said the company is working on a new technology that will better measure the indirect role that online ads play in leading to a sale, a field known as "conversion attribution." McAndrews, who was chief executive of Aquantive when Microsoft bought it for $6 billion last year, said Microsoft has a new product that will enable advertising that is better at "giving credit where credit is due."

McAndrews, who heads Microsoft's … Read more

Microsoft landed another ad-serving deal on Tuesday, announcing it will be the exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search ads for the Wall Street Journal online and several other Dow Jones-owned sites.

The move is the latest in a string of deals, following Microsoft's expanded ad-serving deal with Facebook in October. In December, Microsoft announced a deal with Viacom that it valued at $500 million, though it didn't provide specific details on how it came to that figure. Last month, Microsoft signed a deal with another financial information company, Edgar Online.

In addition to WSJ.com, the … Read more

In its latest ad-serving deal, Microsoft has landed Edgar Online, the Web site best known for providing businesses and investors with access to Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

Under the agreement announced on Wednesday, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party provider of display, contextual, and video advertising for Edgar Online. Also, as part of the deal, Edgar Online will provide content, including SEC filings, to Microsoft's MSN Money site.

Microsoft is expected to begin serving ads in March, while Edgar Online content will come onto MSN Money later this year.

Aiming to better compete with rival Google, Microsoft has … Read more

Microsoft has been investing in interactive TV for more than a decade, but as of this month, the company can finally say it has a million customers.

Right now, there about 1 million set-top boxes running Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV software. In the coming weeks, Microsoft said it expects to also have more than 1 million homes using its software. (The difference between homes and set-top boxes stems from the fact that some customers have more than one set-top box).

There are a lot of reasons why unit CTO Peter Barrett expects the IPTV effort to start paying off even … Read more

Aiming to draw some attention to a redesign of its Web site, NBC plans to broadcast its evening newscast from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday.

While he will probably be able to avoid the long cab lines, anchor Brian Williams will brave the CES crowds to do NBC Nightly News live from the show floor. It will first air at 3:30 p.m. PST--evening for the East Coast audience.

In part, NBC is hoping to parlay the unusual locale into some attention for the NBC Nightly News Web site, which is getting a makeover. "… Read more

It's not the company's main focus these days, but Microsoft does still offer a paid service called MSN Premium, which offering services like a phishing filter and parental controls.

The thing is, most of the product's "premium" features are available for free in some form via Windows, Windows Live, or both.

Enthusiast site Windows Secrets thought it was time to point this fact out to the people who are paying Microsoft as much as $10 a month for MSN Premium. Of the 21 features Microsoft touts, Windows Secrets figures only one or two aren't … Read more