The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Microsoft and Best Buy, which clears the way for a class-action fraud lawsuit against the two companies to go forward.The suit stems from accusations from customers that a subsidiary of Best Buy had signed up customers for a trial of MSN Internet Service without their consent. The two companies had previously signed a $200 million marketing agreement surrounding MSN.
Plaintiffs are using racketeering laws to go after Microsoft and Best Buy, and are attempting to argue that the deal between the two companies constituted an enterprise. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act has been used to sue companies before, but this would be the first time the Supreme Court has ruled on a case using that argument.
Microsoft late Thursday announced its Windows Live SkyDrive service was being upgraded to support 1GB of file storage - double what was previously available. Meanwhile, Google on Friday said it would "speed up" the counter increasing storage available to Gmail users, reaching 4GB by the end of the month.Microsoft's SkyDrive will receive a number of other new features as well, including subscribing to a user's public folder via RSS, seeing who uploaded a specific file in your public folder, and more integration with Windows Live Spaces and Messenger. Windows Live SkyDrive is only available in the United States, UK and India for the time being.
Organizing an event? Microsoft is hoping that customers will use its latest free online service, Windows Live Events.
This new social events planning service was unveiled Oct. 11 and will be rolled out over the next few days.
Windows Live Events is designed to make it easy for users to create personalized event Web sites using a range of customized templates, to which they can add photographs, videos and stories via blog posts after the party is over.
"We have really focused on letting customers relive the event through memories," Windows Live Product Manager Jay Fluegel, in Redmond, Wash., told eWEEK on Oct. 11. This new service has not been beta tested outside of Microsoft, as it is built on the same infrastructure as Windows Live Spaces, which has been around for three years, he said.
Microsoft may have toned down its rhetoric about claims that Linux violates its patents, but you wouldn't know it by listening to company CEO Steve Ballmer.
During a question-and-answer session in London last week for the Oct. 4 U.K. rollout of Microsoft's Startup Accelerator Program, Ballmer took a swipe at Red Hat.
"People who use Red Hat Linux, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to eventually compensate us," Ballmer said during the session, which was Webcast. He cited last year's licensing deal with Novell, as well as Microsoft's recent settlement with patent contender Eolas, as examples of how companies compensate others for the use of intellectual property.
Microsoft shares hit a two-month high Tuesday after Goldman, Sachs & Co. said rising demand for the video game "Halo 3" will boost profits this quarter.
"We are expecting a strong quarter," analyst Sarah Friar wrote in a note to investors. The San Francisco-based analyst, who has a "buy" rating on Microsoft, raised her profit forecast for the fiscal first quarter by a cent to 40 cents a share.
Microsoft, which is scheduled to report results after the market closes Oct. 25, may show a profit of 39 cents, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Consumers may not be able to go out and buy Windows Home Server pre-installed on computers quite yet, but for do-it-yourselfers and small PC builders, the dam has already broken.
The software-only package for small system builders can be ordered from a few online retailers, though some currently have it listed as backordered.
In the past couple of weeks, the system builder edition has started showing up for sale at sites like Newegg.com and Buy.com at prices that range from $189.99 down to $170.99. Of course, purchasers of the system builder edition will have to buy or build their own server hardware and install the system software themselves.
Microsoft is taking its Office programs further online -- but in a way that maintains the role of its traditional desktop software, where it still makes most of its money.
The company says it will offer a free, Web-based service that works with Word, Excel and PowerPoint to let people store and access files online. The service, dubbed Office Live Workspace, also will let users collaborate on documents remotely over the Internet.
However, editing and creating documents will still take place on the PC desktop, requiring a regular version of the Microsoft Office software. The file can then be uploaded to the Web, with subsequent changes synchronized from the desktop to the online copy.
Microsoft will now allow users of Windows XP to download Internet Explorer 7 without having to gain Windows Genuine Advantage authentication. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is part of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative. It is intended to help prevent the distribution and use of unauthorized versions of Windows. Previously, to download Internet Explorer 7, users had to authenticate to WGA.
"With today's 'Installation and Availability Update,' Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users," wrote IE7 program manager Steve Reynolds in a blog post on Thursday.
Microsoft said Monday that it will begin bundling two free games worth $90 with its standard $349.99 USD package and the Xbox 360 Elite in order to entice new consumers to the console. The games include Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance when they begin appearing at retailers in October. While many are expecting Microsoft to also release its replacement for the Core system, called "Xbox 360 Arcade," no announcement was made as of yet.
The console, which has been out since November 2005, has one of the broadest game lineups of the three next-generation systems. Besides Halo 3, the console currenty has six other titles expected to sell over a million units, including BioShock, Project Gotham Racing 4, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero III, and Call of Duty 4. 21 of the top 30 best rated games on Metacrtic.com are Xbox titles, Microsoft added.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week said his company aims to have as much as 25 percent of its revenues coming from advertising within a few years.
Those comments, given during a keynote speech at the !MAGINE 07 trade show in Paris, didn't include details on exactly when that might occur. Nevertheless, the claim is not too surprising given Ballmer's well-known intention to shift the software giant to a "software plus services" business model.
The question remains how the Redmond, Wash., company intends to accomplish that plan, especially since it has a considerable way to go. Microsoft last booked about $51 billion in annual revenue, only about $1.2 billion of which came from advertising, according to its most recent financial results.