Microsoft to buy Thai health software vendor
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Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it has agreed to buy a Thai software vendor that specializes in hospital administration applications, and plans to sell the software in emerging markets.Global Care Solutions (GCS) of Bangkok, Thailand, is Microsoft&#39;s third purchase of a health-care software vendor in the past 13 months, according to Peter Neupert , vice president for the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft . The group was formed two years ago and the purchase of GCS is one more step to building the Microsoft health-care business, he said.GCS specializes in hospital software that takes care of patient scheduling, billing, clinical workflow, regulatory compliance and medical record-keeping. The privately held company has worked for years with Bumrungrad International Hospital , a facility made famous by its focus on catering to visiting tourists.What makes GCS software special is the amount of specialized record keeping required by Bumrungrad. Doctors at the hospital see over 1.2 million patients each year, including 400,000 foreign patients from 190 countries, meaning varying language, insurance and billing data. Half of the 3,200 patients seen at Bumrungrad each day walk in without an appointment, yet GCS&#39;s scheduling software ensures patients wait an average of 17 minutes to see a doctor.Microsoft will retain all GCS workers after the acquisition. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.The companies also announced a collaborative alliance with Bumrungrad Hospital to continue work on tweaking and improving technology to improve hospital care.&quot;We now have a partner that&#39;s willing to experiment with us,&quot; said Neupert. He said future work will include software development as well as experimenting on how RFID (radio frequency identification) can improve hospital care.Microsoft will focus GCS software sales on hospitals in emerging countries, said Neupert. The software fits well with emerging market hospital needs, requiring just a small investment in computer hardware, he said.Microsoft has not been receiving requests for the kind of software GCS provides, he said, but made the acquisition based on what its Health Solutions Group required, and because the company has a good understanding of its business. GCS software is in use in seven hospitals around the Asia-Pacific region, the company said.
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Microsoft Corp has signed a new 500m pound ($920m) contract to supply a desktop operating system and software to the UK&#39;s National Health Service, including provisions to develop a tailored interface for clinical systems.
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Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it agreed to buy a Norwegian search company for $1.2 billion, aiming to shore up its search technology for businesses against competition from Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp.
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Microsoft has purchased Giant Company Software, a small anti-spyware software company it hopes will shore up its security defenses.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has purchased a small, privately held data management company and will use the technology to enhance its SQL Server database, Office, and related business software, the company said Thursday. Stratature, a 16-person based company in Alpharetta, Georgia, provides MDM (master data management) software called +EDM that manages a central repository of reference data that is accessed by a disparate group of enterprise IT systems. Microsoft plans to deliver capabilities from Stratature's software to business users through a combination of Microsoft Office on the front end and its SQL Server database on the back end. Microsoft is promoting the latest version of its Office suite for business users as a collaboration platform, and a big part of this plan has been providing tighter integration with Office and other applications where users need to share data across business units. The company is especially interested in providing storage and management for the unstructured data that is becoming more prevalent in the enterprise and is making this a key focus for the next version of SQL Server, code-named Katmai and recently named SQL Server 2008. Eventually, Microsoft plans to integrate MDM capabilities throughout its entire Office Business Platform, including the PerformancePoint, Dynamics, Project Server, and SharePoint product lines, said Alex Payne, group product manager for Office Business Applications at Microsoft. According to information on Stratature's Web site, the first delivery of MDM-related technology from Microsoft will focus on what is called analytical hierarchy management, which helps executives obtain company information in a way that accurately reflects their own view of their departments. This also will give developers one source of data, making it easier for them to integrate data and perform development tasks across the enterprise, while at the same time help IT executives retain control and governance over corporate information, according to Stratature. Payne said Microsoft will provide more information at a later date about exactly how Stratature's offerings will fit into Microsoft's portfolio. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.
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Microsoft Corp has offered to buy  Norwegian Internet-search software firm Fast Search & Transfer  for 19 crowns per share, valuing the company at about $1.2  billion, the companies said on Tuesday.
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Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has agreed to buy British soccer club Manchester City FC for $162 million.
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Microsoft says its purchase of Medstory is part of an effort to build a suite of tools and services related to health care.
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On Monday, Microsoft announced it has agreed to acquire Danger, whose software powers the popular Sidekick and Hiphop devices.
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Microsoft has offered to buy Norwegian Internet-search software firm Fast Search & Transfer for about $1.2 billion.
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Microsoft Corp.  said on Tuesday it would buy anti-virus software maker Sybari Software Inc. in its second such deal in three months to shore up security in its Windows and e-mail software, which are the most frequent targets of malicious programmers.
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Security software firm Trend Micro (Quote, Chart) today announced it had completed a deal with Microsoft (Quote, Chart) to provide virus scanning, protection and cleaning for its Hotmail Web-based e-mail service.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it will acquire a Chicago-based provider of enterprise group chat software to bolster the messaging capabilities of its Office Communications Server and Office Communicator products.
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InfoWorld - Hewlett-Packard plans to acquire business transactions monitoring software vendor Bristol Technology.
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Microsoft made a $1.2 billion bid on Norwegian enterprise search vendor, Fast Search and Transfer, or FAST, a company that could boost its Office product suite and compete with Google.
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Microsoft announced today that it had bought New York software company Giant Company Software, which produces a robust anti-spyware tool.
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Microsoft Corp  agreed to  acquire Parlano, which provides technology to allow companies  to create group chat sessions for employees, and add the  application to its portfolio of communication offerings.