Microsoft

Buzz Out Loud 653: The Wii hates smokers

EPISODE 653

Update: Yahoo kills Yahoo Music

On Friday, I pondered if Microsoft would kill Yahoo Music. Now, it looks like Microsoft won't have to bother: this morning, Yahoo announced an agreement with RealNetworks to transfer all Yahoo Music subscription customers to Real's Rhapsody service. In all likelihood, this deal was well underway before the Microsoft announcement--Yahoo's been rumored to be considering a free service for several weeks now--but the timing certainly makes it look like Yahoo's accelerating its cuts. And it appears that Rhapsody's the default partner of choice for companies that want to cut their digital music ties with Microsoft--recall … Read more

Instead of complaining, Google should make bid for Yahoo

After Microsoft made a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo last week, everyone was waiting on bated breath to see what Google would have to say about it.

And in typical industry fashion, the company currently on the wrong side of a major deal has come out in protest.

In a statement on the company's website, Google's Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond indicated that his company is not all pleased with Microsoft's bid.

"Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another," he wrote. "It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

Please. By trying to take the "high road", Google sounded petty and made itself look foolish. And if the company really wanted to do something about it, it should stop complaining and make a bid for Yahoo.… Read more

Microsoft's top strategic initiatives for 2008? More of the same

Microsoft doesn't appear to have much ambition left in the tank. But if I had multi-billion dollar monopolies in desktop operating systems and office productivity suites, I might not venture too far from home, either.

Steve Ballmer recently outlined Microsoft's top strategic initiatives for 2008. If they sound eerily similar to what Microsoft has traditionally focused on, that's because they are:… Read more

Ballmer: Attack Google with or without Yahoo

Steve Ballmer spent plenty of time talking about Yahoo during Microsoft's just-concluded meeting with financial analysts on Monday. However, the CEO offered little news with regards to the company's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo.

He reiterated many of the things he said in announcing the deal Friday, talking about the need for scale in the business and the benefits of combining the two companies' research-and-development efforts.

Ballmer also echoed General Counsel Brad Smith's comments Sunday--that Microsoft buying Yahoo would increase competition by creating a stronger alternative to Google, while other potential options for Yahoo would ultimately … Read more

Yang e-mail reaches out to Yahoo employees

Wonder what Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang and the company's nonexecutive chairman, Roy Bostock, said to the troops on Friday, after Microsoft launched its unsolicited $44.6 billion bid?

Here's the text of the e-mail they sent to employees, which the company filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

Subject: more on today's news...

-CONFIDENTIAL-

fellow yahoos:

since we talked to you this morning, there's been a lot of media coverage and industry chatter about microsoft's unsolicited proposal to acquire yahoo!. we know you've been hearing and reading a lot about this. that'… Read more

Microsoft wants to bring Surface home sooner

When people get a chance to try out Microsoft's Surface touch-screen tabletop computer, they often wish they could take one home.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday that the company is trying to speed up that process after getting a lot of demand for a consumer version.

When Microsoft announced its plans for Surface last spring, the stated plan was to bring the technology to consumers eventually, but the company warned that it could be five years before a version of the products would be on shelves at the local Best Buy.

But the company got a lot of … Read more

Ballmer: More marketing of Windows needed

With Apple gaining significant market share, Microsoft is finally acknowledging that it needs to do a better job of selling Windows.

"We're going to have to invest more than we ever have in consumer excitement," CEO Steve Ballmer told financial analysts Monday. "We are going to be doing more to highlight Windows, and that is going to require more investment."

Ballmer also mentioned the need to work on the next Windows, but offered no new details on Windows 7, Vista's successor.

"We're very hard at work on the next version, which we … Read more

Microsoft to open Boston-area research lab

Microsoft on Monday said it plans in July to open its sixth research lab, in Cambridge, Mass.

The new lab will focus initially on "core computer science, especially more algorithmically oriented areas, and the social sciences, with a particular emphasis on building connections between these two areas," Microsoft said, adding that there will also be a small team working on design issues.

The lab will be run by Jennifer Tour Chayes, a veteran of Microsoft Research. The press release was quick to note that Chayes is the first woman to run one of the company's labs.

"… Read more