Ballmer defends Microsoft's cash "problem"
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Under pressure from Microsoft Corp.   investors to return a portion of the company&#039;s &#36;35  billion cash reserve and revive a flagging share price, Chief  Executive Steve Ballmer on Wednesday defended the company&#039;s  &quot;first-class problem&quot; of having too much cash.
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Windows development chief James Allchin says he was only trying to spur development on Windows Vista when he wrote three years ago in an e-mail to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates that he'd buy a Mac if he didn't work at Microsoft.
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Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, in an open letter posted on his company's Web site, said he disagrees with recent claims by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that the Linux OS infringes on Microsoft patents.
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Novell has issued a response to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer&#39;s latest attack on Linux. The Linux software maker accuses Microsoft of using biased reports to back up its claims, and has launched a website to debunk the myths.
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Security expert express concerns that cash machines could soon fall victim to Windows viruses.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rebuffed&#160;Google&#39;s accusations&#160;that an acquisition of Yahoo would be anticompetitive.
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LONDON--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, speaking to a gathering of reporters here, didn&#39;t pass up the opportunity to take several digs at archrival Apple Computer.
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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is reviving profit and sales growth by preventing customer defections to Linux, a computer operating system available for free on the Internet.
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According to a recent report from a research group, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer at an Asian Government Leaders Forum in Singapore claimed that Linux violates more than 228 patents.
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Microsoft's CEO tells BusinessWeek that the projected $1 billion in savings won't come from chopping off exclamation points, but offers few new details on the deal.
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TechWeb - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer subtly raises the intellectual-property issue again.
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Steve Ballmer&#39;s letter to customers said nothing about the widespread reality of tens of thousands of Microsoft customers who are eager to deploy BOTH Windows and Linux.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has made a &quot;pre-emptive strike&quot; against Linux, which is fast becoming a bigger thorn in the software giant&#39;s side.
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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer reiterated the company&#39;s case against the open-source Linux operating system yesterday in an e-mail message to customers that was notable in part for its timing.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rebuffed&#160;Google&#39;s accusations&#160;that an acquisition of Yahoo would be anticompetitive.The bid was made public Friday, prompting the response from Google over the weekend. Ballmer Monday at a news conference ceded ground to Microsoft&#39;s arch rival in order to justify his company&#39;s&#160;$44.6 billion cash-and-stock offer for Yahoo,&#160;which if accepted would fall under the scrutiny of U.S. and European regulators.&quot;Google&#39;s clearly got a dominant position,&quot; Ballmer said. &quot;They have about 75 percent of paid search worldwide. We think this enhances competition and anything else would be less good.&quot;A Google executive struck back at Microsoft on Sunday, charging that a combined Microsoft and Yahoo would control an overwhelming share of e-mail and instant-messaging accounts as well as portal traffic.David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google, further suggested that if Microsoft buys Yahoo it might try to unfairly use its dominance in those areas, just as it did in the PC market.Monday&#39;s news conference, in which Ballmer spoke with Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell, appeared to put further pressure on Yahoo&#39;s board to accept the offer, which at $31 a share represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s closing price last Thursday.&quot;We think it&#39;s an extremely competitive offer,&quot; Liddell said.In a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yahoo disclosed an e-mail sent on Friday by CEO Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock, non-executive chairman of Yahoo&#39;s board. &quot;First, we want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there&#39;s certainly no integration process under way,&quot; the e-mail read.Ballmer continued with a hard push as to how a deal with Yahoo will let Microsoft move faster in building out areas such as search, online services and online advertising.&quot;We are going to have to innovate like crazy,&quot; Ballmer said.But he also stressed how long it could take for a Yahoo deal to eventually benefit shareholders. Ballmer said he looks at whether investments will pay off five to 10 years down the line, but investors often want to see results in three years.&quot;Sometimes those investments look smart, sometimes it takes a while for them to pay off,&quot; Ballmer said.
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(InfoWorld) - Speaking at a lunch meeting in Seattle on Thursday, MicrosoftÂ CEO Steve Ballmer tried to explain the difference between the words "as" and "and" when placed between the words "software" and "service." In the midst of a shift in the technology industry toward using browsers to access remotely hosted applications, called "software as a service," Microsoft is promoting its own version of the phenomenon: "software and service." "For most people it's a nuance, but it's really important in our place," Ballmer said. To Microsoft, software and service means a balanced model that involves a smart client device, which could be a PC, mobile phone, or TV, combined with "smart computers doing work on your behalf in the center of the Net," Ballmer said. "So we're trying to carve out a balance." Technical decisions determine which components run where, Ballmer said. By contrast, software as a service often refers to Internet-based applications that are accessed by end-users through their browsers, without requiring specialized software on the user device. The difference between "software as a service" and "software and service" is important for a company such as Microsoft, which earns billions of dollars in revenue every year by selling PC software. Ballmer spoke at an annual luncheon in Seattle hosted by the Technology Alliance, a group started by Microsoft founder Bill Gates' father and dedicated to fostering education and an entrepreneurial environment in Washington state. Beyond attempting to clarify the difference between two very similar phrases, Ballmer touched on a variety of topics, including the challenge of developing products to be useful yet simple. "It's a great balancing act," he said. "A brilliant design gives power for those who want it and great ease of use whether you want that power or not." Never one to shy away from promotion, Ballmer said the latest version of Office manages that balance particularly well.
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Microsoft buys in, kinda WPC Steve Ballmer has promised Microsoft will take the lead in online software and services through a middle-of-the-road approach, while talking swipes at technology luddites and evangelical extremists.â¦