Microsoft`s WorldWide Telescope

Microsoft has released a free public beta of its WorldWide Telescope, which is software that lets both amateur and professional stargazers explore the universe from their PCs. The WorldWide Telescope is a rich Web application that accesses high-resolution images taken by ground- and Earth-orbiting telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Read Steven Musil's blog for more details.

The main screen of the Worldwide Telescope contains stars visible to the human eye that are mapped into constellations.

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MicroHoo is Unnerving says Sergey Brin

At a recent event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin called Microsoft's bid for Yahoo "unnerving" and said the move imperils innovation on the Internet. Google also posits that the merger would be illegal. Maybe the merger could violate antitrust laws. Or maybe Brin likes being King of the Mountain, and doesn't want anything to threaten that. Oh, and Brin? Innovation will continue with or without MicroHoo.

The remarks came at an event for the Google Lunar X Prize yesterday. In an interview with the Associated Press, Brin said, "The Internet has evolved from open standards, having a diversity of companies. And when you start to have companies that control the operating system, control the browsers, they really tie up the top Web sites, and can be used to manipulate stuff in various ways. I think that's unnerving."

That's pretty much what Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said in a letter published on Google's Web site shortly after Microsoft's takeover bid was announced. He wrote, in part, "This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

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Microsoft unveales Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008

Microsoft revealed details of the next version of its Windows OS for small businesses and formally introduced a new product line aimed at small and mid-size businesses.

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008, formally code-named "Cougar," is one of two software bundles in Microsoft's new Windows Essential Server Solutions line; it also includes Windows Essential Business Server 2008, formerly code-named "Centro" and aimed at mid-sized companies. Both products are based on the same code as Windows Server 2008, the next version of Microsoft's enterprise server OS.

The products in the Essential line bundle a server OS with other software products that Microsoft deems necessary to running a business -- such as Microsoft's messaging software, Exchange Server and security products -- to provide what Microsoft describes as an all-in-one, easy-to-install software stack for companies that may only have a small IT support staff.

SBS 2008 is aimed at companies with up to 50 PCs and includes one-year trial subscriptions to Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server Small Business Edition and Windows Live OneCare for Server.

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Micro-hoo: will that take a place?

Microsoft believes that he's bluffing and plans to pursue this deal through to a conclusion.
In an interview with my colleague Ina Fried on Wednesday, Bill Gates made clear why Microsoft's in love with this grand vision of a future "Micro-hoo."
"We think that the combination with Yahoo would accelerate things in a very exciting way, because they do have great engineers, they have done a lot of great work. So if you combine their work and our work, the speed at which you can innovate and get things done is just dramatically more rapid," Gates said. "So it's really about the people there that want to join in and create a better search, better portal for a very broad set of customers. That's the vision that's behind saying, 'hey, wouldn't this be a great combination?'"

I'm still not convinced that this won't turn into a disaster, with all the messy corporate-culture clashes that always attend mergers--but on a massive scale. Still, Gates and Steve Ballmer believe that they can successfully steer clear of the potholes, and they're willing to put more than $40 billion behind that bet.

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Microsoft may borrow money for the first time in its history to buy yahoo

Microsoft said, it may borrow money for the first time in its history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo.

Microsoft also said it expects Yahoo's board to agree to the proposed deal quickly, but Yahoo said over the weekend that it expects to take "quite a bit of time " to weigh all of its strategic options including remaining independent.

A source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said it is considering a business alliance with Google to fend off Microsoft's offer.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the software company may issue some debt to finance the cash portion of its 50-50 stock and cash offer for Yahoo, instead of drawing down its entire $21 billion cash pile.

"It's likely we're actually going to borrow for the first time," Liddell said in an annual strategy meeting with analysts. "It's going to be a mixture of the cash we have on hand plus debt."

Liddell declined to say whether Microsoft was already buying Yahoo stock on the open market. He also did not give any information on what form of debt Microsoft will seek in the capital markets.

Microsoft made public on Friday its offer to pay Yahoo shareholders either $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. The deal aims to create a formidable No. 2 to challenge Google's dominance in Web search and digital advertising.

Analysts applauded Microsoft's decision to take on debt.

"Microsoft can probably get a lower price of debt than equity," said Kim Caughey, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. "I've often wondered why Microsoft sits on the pile of cash. It doesn't make a lot of financial sense."

Liddell, when asked why Microsoft chose to dilute its stock instead of making an all-cash offer, said analysts need to keep the offer in perspective with the $31 billion that Microsoft spent in share buybacks and dividends in fiscal 2007.


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Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo mean?

If You’ve got a Yahoo e-mail account, and your best friend uses MSN.You use Yahoo Messenger and she uses MSN Messenger for instant messaging.When it comes to search, you both use both Google, and sometimes Yahoo and MSN.
So, what could Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo mean in all these areas if the software giant acquires the Internet company?

Keeping an e-mail address is probably the biggest issue for most consumers, and one that is likely to be left as is for awhile, with each brand staying in place, said Allen Weiner, research director for Gartner, Inc. market research.

“The issue is, particularly as Microsoft has moved people in their e-mail business around, from Hotmail (which Microsoft bought in 1998) to Live Mail, and created some confusion around that, they certainly don’t want to basically say, ‘We’re all going to move you now to Yahoo mail,’ ” he said.

“The question is, how do they keep those brands in place, where appropriate, and then, where appropriate, do they bring those brands together?”

David Smith, lead Microsoft analyst for Gartner, said if Microsoft acquires Yahoo, there likely “would be ways to provide interoperability, to provide support, so that people don’t have to change” their e-mail addresses.

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Microsoft has made a bid of $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo

Seeking to reshape the online landscape andwith a single bold stroke, Microsoft has made a US$44.6 billion unsolicited bid to buy struggling portal Yahoo create a serious challenger to Google.
The offer -- shareholders can choose either cash or the equivalent amount of Microsoft stock -- valued Yahoo at $31 per share, a 62 percent premium over the stock's closing price on Thursday. Yahoo shares surged 44 percent higher in Friday morning action to $27.75. Microsoft shares were down more than 6 percent to $30.52.



The surprise bid may be a sign of how eager Microsoft is to match up with Google. If it lands Yahoo, Microsoft would instantly gain a sprawling Web empire that draws hundreds of millions of users from around the world as well as partnerships with advertisers. There would also be significant overlap: Both Microsoft and Yahoo offer Web mail, instant messaging, search engines and other Web services.

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Microsoft earns record revenue in 2nd-quarter

Microsoft Annouces its fiscal second-quarter profit climbed 79 percent, buoyed by rising sales of Windows-based personal computers.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, profit increased to $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share, from $2.63 billion, or 26 cents per share in the same period last year.

Results topped Wall Street's expectations. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast a profit of 46 cents per share.

Revenue rose 31 percent to $16.37 billion from $12.5 billion in the year-ago quarter, ahead of analysts' prediction of $15.95 billion in sales.

The quarter was particularly strong when compared with a year ago, when Microsoft deferred more than $1 billion in revenue due to delays in getting Windows Vista, its newest operating system, to consumers.

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Microsoft apologizes Office 2003 'mistake'

I found a very interesting news and wanted to share one article on it.
Microsoft has acknowledged it made a mistake over a security advisory it released concerning Office 2003.The advisory, posted in December, told users that dozens of file formats had been blocked in the latest service pack for Office 2003--Service Pack 3 (SP3)--because they were insecure. It provided a workaround for users who wanted to unblock the formats, but made the process complicated, requiring changes to the registry which could have made users' PCs inoperable if they were applied incorrectly.
On Friday, Microsoft admitted that the information it had provided was wrong, and that it had underestimated how many users had been affected. It now says that, instead of the file formats themselves being insecure, it is the parsing code that Office 2003 uses to open and save the file types that is less secure.
Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk on Friday, Reed Shaffner, worldwide product manager for Microsoft Office, confirmed that the advisory provided by Microsoft was incorrect, and that manual registry fix which Microsoft had provided had been difficult to implement by end users.
Asked why Microsoft had not made the fix easier to implement, Shaffner said: "We thought it would not impact many users. And the messages we have been receiving are that it hasn't affected many users. But it was a mistake on our part."

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