If you can't beat 'em ? surround 'em. That may be the crux of Microsoft's emerging strategy for combating emerging software-as-a-service competitors.
Although Microsoft executives continue to criticize Office competitors such as OpenOffice.org, Sun's StarOffice, and Google Docs as inadequate for most users' needs, the company is not beyond changing directions when it sees that the herd is going against it.
That includes, according to a third-party firm that claims to have been briefed, upcoming software licensing changes that will let companies stream Microsoft's Office applications to users' desktops as different parts of the programs are needed.
Yahoo's shares weren't the only thing to take a beating Monday, following Microsoft's megabillion buyout pullout.
Turns out a fifth of analysts who follow Yahoo changed their recommendations on Monday--all to a "sell" or "strong sell," according to Thomson Reuters.
The downgrades come as Yahoo ended the day at $24.37 per share, down 15 percent from its close on Friday.
Seven analysts changed their recommendations, and here's the score:
- 3 were updated to "strong sells" from "strong buys"
- 3 were updated to "sell" from "hold"
- 1 updated to "strong sell" from "hold"
Microsoft should consider putting its search-advertising endeavors on the back burner for now and attempt an end run at Google by trying to become a leader in the display-, video- and mobile-advertising markets, where no company is a clear leader yet.
Microsoft was pursuing Yahoo partly for its display advertising business, an area of the online ad market where Google is weak. Now that Microsoft has abandoned its plan to buy Yahoo -- for now anyway -- it might be smart for it to examine its own assets and come up with a strategy to expand not only in display advertising, but also in video and mobile advertising.
To put a lid on bloggers' speculation about police getting "backdoors" to Windows security, Microsoft is starting to hush up on the subject. In an e-mail to BetaNews on Friday, a spokesperson described COFEE as a "customizable framework."Despite releasing a few more facts on Friday about a controversial new tool for police officers, Microsoft has now vowed to stay mum on the "exact methods" used by COFEE, as well as about what kinds of passwords -- OS or network, for example -- COFEE might be able to crack.
Microsoft has leased another big office tower in Bellevue, cementing its future position as the city's largest employer.
The company's 561,000-square-foot lease of City Center Plaza, a 26-story building under construction in downtown Bellevue, will give it room for an additional 2,000 employees in the city, a spokesman said Thursday. Counting that space and other projects already leased by the company, Microsoft is expected to have room for more than 7,500 employees in Bellevue a year from now.
Late Saturday Microsoft formally withdrew its offer for Yahoo following negotiation talks that extended into the weekend but ultimately fell flat.
In a letter posted on Microsoft's Web site from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo's CEO Jerry Wang, Ballmer expressed his displeasure with Yahoo's rejection of an increased bid of $33 per share, raising the offer to approximately $49.6 billion.
"This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer," Ballmer wrote. "Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33 offer."
If I ever write a book about Microsoft, it will be called "Damned if You Do..." It seems like everything the software giant does is misconstrued and misunderstood, and nothing they do will ever make people happy. Windows Vista falls neatly in that second category. But focusing on the first for a second, let's turn our attention to the pending expiration of Windows XP sales, which will occur June 30, 2008. Despite what I see as a very clear bit of communication about this event, it seems that some customers still don't understand is happening on that day.
Microsoft says anecdotal evidence indicates its version of Grand Theft Auto IV is doing much better than Sony's, although Sony seems to dispute that claim.
So far, there are no hard numbers available, so Microsoft's claims cannot be verified. To its defense Sony is disputing the claims as inconsistent with its own reports, although it will not provide more data until further reports are received.
Microsoft and Yahoo have turned a corner and are finally negotiating in earnest about their possible merger, although a deal is far from imminent, according to media reports.
In anonymously sourced stories published online midafternoon Friday, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that talks between the companies have suddenly gathered steam.
It has been three months since Microsoft announced its cash-and-stock bid for Yahoo, valued then at $44.6 billion but now worth about $42 billion because Microsoft's stock has lost value.
Microsoft says it views the Popfly Game Creator as a training tool and gateway to its flagship Visual studio tool set.Microsoft has built upon its Popfly mashup tool to fashion a new way for beginners and nonprogrammers to create games.
The software giant on May 2 announced the alpha release of its Popfly Game Creator, which builds on Popfly's current set of mashup and Web page authoring tools to add support for easy creation and sharing of casual games.
John Montgomery, group program manager for Popfly and Visual Studio Express, said Popfly Game Creator is a Silverlight tool for people who have little to no programming skills but who want to create games and share them with friends.