The Redmond software vendor says that startup Esiod's home networking product is too much like its 'Sidebar' and 'Fjord' products. A Monroe, Wash.-based home-networking software company run by two former Microsoft employees has run afoul of Microsoft.
According to a cease-and-desist letter sent Friday to the startup, Esiod Systems, Microsoft believes the two employees violated their Microsoft non-compete agreements in designing and developing their product called "Schnazzle."
Schnazzle - which Esiod is due to release later today - is a little too similar to Microsoft's "Sidebar" interface technology that is part of MSN and expected to be featured as part of "Longhorn," according to the letter from Microsoft's lawyers, Preston, Gates & Ellis.
Microsoft needs someone new to give away its millions. Bruce Brooks, the executive who has led the software company's philanthropic program for more than three years, has decided to leave Microsoft and reunite with former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, under whom Brooks was deputy mayor. Brooks, 44, plans to begin work next month as director of corporate and community affairs at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, where Rice is chief executive officer. As Microsoft's director of community affairs, Brooks oversees the company's corporate giving program, which donated nearly $40 million in cash and $207 million in software last year.
The personal computer industry might be mature, but Microsoft sees a lot of growth left in the PC market. PC sales have stalled. Worldwide, PC unit shipments rose just 1.4% in 2002 over the prior year, says research firm International Data Corp. In 2001 they fell 4.1% from 2000, the first-ever decline. Yet Microsoft has managed to boost its overall revenue an average of 13% a quarter year over year for the last eight quarters. This from a company that gets the bulk of its revenue from PCs.
It has more than 90% market share in PC operating systems and productivity software. And it gets most of its profit from those two cash cows - Windows and Office. Microsoft has been able to ride out the downturn thanks largely to a surge of revenue related to changes in how it licenses software to corporations, says Kurt Schlegel, an analyst with the Meta Group.
Months after promising to tighten up its procedures for certifying third-party software drivers, Microsoft is still giving the green light to network interface card (NIC) drivers that leak sensitive user information from machines running Windows Server 2003, according to a prominent security company. The allegations were made in an alert posted Monday by Next Generation Security Software (NGSSoftware) of Sutton, England.
At least two NIC drivers that shipped with Windows Server 2003 contain a security hole that leaks information stored on a system in Ethernet "frames" or streams of data sent over a network, according to the alert.
Better known for browsers than blockbusters, Microsoft is still angling for a major role in the digital film business. The company is downplaying its ambitions until it finds out whether or not Hollywood will bite.
Microsoft debuted its Windows Media 9 Series technology last fall with great fanfare. Celebrity guests from the film and music industries touted the new technology before hundreds of journalists, technologists and media professionals. Even Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates came out to brag, along with director James Cameron and former Beatles producer Sir George Martin.
Microsoft has announced the appointment of Marshall Phelps Jr. as its corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for intellectual property. Phelps will be responsible for supervising the software giant's intellectual property groups, including those responsible for trademarks, trade secrets, patents and copyrights. He will lead the company's work to manage its intellectual property portfolio, including approximately 3,000 US-issued patents and over 11,000 trademark registrations worldwide.
Microsoft on Monday plans to introduce digital TV software designed to help cable operators better leverage their existing hardware and network infrastructure for providing on-demand services. Called Microsoft TV Foundation, the software is an end-to-end solution that helps operators package and promote digital services such as video on demand (VOD) and helps viewers browse and use the services via a built-in, interactive program guide, according to Microsoft.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant is slated to unveil and demonstrate the new platform in Chicago at The National Show, the annual convention of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
Microsoft has agreed to modify its $1.1 billion antitrust settlement with California in response to complaints by Apple Computer that the original agreement simply provided free Microsoft software to schools in that state. Under the terms of the modified agreement, Microsoft will instead provide schools in California with vouchers good toward the purchase of any computer hardware or software, and not just software made by Microsoft. California had sued Microsoft in the wake of the company's historic federal antitrust trial, accusing it of overcharging consumers in the state for Windows, Office, and other software products. Microsoft first reached its settlement agreement with California in January.
Microsoft said on Monday it plans to sell new software tools to the cable industry, in another attempt to appeal to a sector that in the past has kept its distance. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to unveil the details of a new software package, called Microsoft TV Foundation, on Monday at the annual cable industry meeting, the National Show in Chicago. The software makes its easier for cable subscribers to access video-on-demand material, the company said. The world's largest software company is hoping to again try to gain a stronger foothold in the cable industry after fits and starts over the past several years.
Microsoft's BPO (business process orchestration) technology has so far remained separate from its Windows operating system, but integration of the two is on the horizon. A Microsoft official at the company's TechEd show in Dallas last week said BizTalk will expand to facilitate this move, one of many server-related announcements made at the show.
Touted as the first component of its Jupiter e-business system, the Redmond, Wash.-based company announced beta availability of BizTalk Server 2004, which features BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) support, "human-based workflow" for modeling workflow after user needs, and single sign-on capabilities. General availability of BizTalk Server 2004 is planned for the end of this year.