Microsoft acquires Sidekick designer
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Flirts with Danger, then goes the whole way Microsoft has agreed to purchase mobile software developer Danger Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which has not yet been finalised, means the software vendor has closed at least one bid this week - its unsolicited bid for web search competitor Yahoo! was officially snubbed earlier today.â¦
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Microsoft has bought Caligari, a developer of 3D modeling software, in a move that could help enrich the graphics experience in Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping system.
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Microsoft Corp. has struck a deal to provide advertising for social networking site Facebook, in one of the first high-profile agreements for the software maker's online advertising platform.
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Consumer email gadget coming in time for Xmas T-Mobile is to bring the Sidekick 3 consumer-oriented mobile email gadget to the UK next month, the carrier confirmed today. The device will ship here just over a year after T-Mobile UK released the Sidekick II and six months after the third-generation Sidekick's US debut.â¦
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Tony Scott, who most recently was CIO at Walt Disney, will take over that same role at Microsoft in February.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. &#151; Microsoft Corp.'s software platform for personal digital assistants took over the market lead from PalmSource Inc. for the first time in the third quarter, according to market research released Friday.
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Continuing its push into the mobile consumer market, Microsoft announced that it plans to acquire Danger, the developer of software and services that run the Sidekick.Danger&#39;s operating system and applications work in tandem with backend servers to offer such services as games, social networking, Internet access, Web e-mail, and instant messaging. T-Mobile&#39;s Sidekick, manufactured by Sharp, is perhaps the best known Danger device.Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the deal or say if it planned to continue to support the Danger mobile operating system as Microsoft has its own mobile operating system in Windows Mobile.However, Microsoft indicated that it has plans for Danger&#39;s technology beyond mobile phones. In a statement, Microsoft suggested it could combine Danger&#39;s services with MSN, Xbox, Zune, Windows Live, and Windows Mobile. In addition, Microsoft said that Danger would join its Entertainment and Devices Division, not specifically the Windows Mobile group, which is in that division.Danger, based in Palo Alto, California, was founded by Andy Rubin, who later went on to start a company called Android that Google bought.&#160;Google&#39;s Android is a Linux-based mobile phone operating system.While Danger has a loyal following, the company hasn&#39;t turned a profit. In late 2007, it filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to execute a public offering, which may have been an indication that it needed money.Sidekick fans have a mixed reaction to the news of the Microsoft acquisition. In an online forum, some people wrote that they were excited that Danger would have better financial backing in order to further its research and development. Others said they feared that Microsoft was essentially buying out the competition and would soon discontinue Danger&#39;s products and services.Microsoft has recently indicated that it is trying to attract more consumers to Windows Mobile, which the market views as primarily a business tool. It recently hired a new executive to focus on consumer marketing, and the Danger buy could help it acquire consumer customers.
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(InfoWorld) - Eyeing the rich application design space, Microsoft on Monday is detailing milestones in its Expression design tools platform, including the introduction of Expression Media to manage video files, images, and fonts. The company will announce Expression Studio, a suite of four products. The full suite, however, will not ship until the second quarter of 2007. Expression puts Microsoft more squarely into the same ballpark with Adobe and its rich media tools such as Flash and Flex. Microsoft, like Adobe, also is factoring in the application developers in its pursuit of the Web design space, according to analyst Bola Rotibi, of Ovum. "It's allowing the designers to work in their own environments and developers to work in their own environments but to have a shared context," Rotibi said. With the Expression products, designers build the look of an application. Microsoft's Visual Studio development platform, on the other hand, is for developing the code part of an application, according to Microsoft. Expression Studio, which will be priced at $599 for the full suite, features Expression Media, providing digital asset management and team workflow. Based on the iView MediaPro product acquired by Microsoft, it also features Expression Media Encoder for encoding and deploying video and audio. A first CTP of Expression Media is due early next year. The product will be generally available for $299 in the second quarter of next year, for users who wish to purchase it separate from the full suite. Expression Media helps designers handle what may be thousands of design elements, said Forest Key, director of Web/Client UX Platform Marketing in the Microsoft Developer Division. "With Expression Media, they can create a visual catalog," that includes metadata, Key said. Other components of the suite include: * Expression Web, for building Web sites. Formerly known as Expression Web Designer, it is shipping now for an estimated retail price of $299. FrontPage users can upgrade for $99. A free 60-day trial period is being offered, with downloads available. * Expression Blend, formerly known as Interactive Designer or Sparkle, for delivering interactive experiences on Windows. Blend Beta 1 is available now for download. The general release is scheduled for second-quarter 2007; it is priced at $499. * Expression Design, formerly Graphic Designer or Acrylic, for designing visual elements for Web and Windows experiences. A December Community Technology Preview (CTP) is available. The product ships only as part of the full Expression Studio suite next year. Expression Design was based on the Creature House Expression technology acquired by Microsoft in 2003. The latest versions of Blend and Design feature a new interface for designers. The interface enables, for example, designers to see how a layout looks on different monitors. In addition to Expression Studio, Microsoft on Monday is offering the first CTP of Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPE/E). This technology serves as a cross-platform browser plug-in for rich media, animation and video content based on Windows Media technology. Users can author content for WPE/E with the Expression Media and Design products. WPE/E allows designers and developers to build an experience in the browser that is richer than could be done with just the browser itself, Key said. Featured is the ability to render the XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) file format for rich media capabilities. Microsoft also is launching an online community for designers, featuring forums, video demos, and team blogs.
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Microsoft continues to make acquisitions to boost its online services and advertising strategy. Early Wednesday, the company said it snapped up Multimap, a U.K. company that provides online mapping for Europe, North America, and Australia.The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. Multimap, based in London, will act as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, and employees will be integrated into the company&#39;s Virtual Earth and Search teams in its Online Services Group (OSG), Microsoft said.Multimap has staff in the United Kingdom, the&#160;United States, and Australia, and Microsoft said it is not sure yet if those employees will stay where they are or move to other offices. The Multimap office in the United Kingdom will remain open and employees will continue business as usual there, the company added.In addition to providing online maps, Multimap also offers location-based services to find local businesses, hotels, and restaurants, as well as business services to provide mapping, proximity searching, routing, aerial images with map overlay, and local information to business Web sites.Microsoft has been looking for ways to boost the value and, thus revenue, of OSG, which oversees MSN and Windows Live. Microsoft hopes to leverage these properties to sell online advertising and generate revenue in this area to compete with Google.Last week, the company said it&#160;purchased Seattle startup WebFives, formerly Vizrea, which provides a Web-based file-sharing service for Internet and mobile video, photos, audio, and blogs. Microsoft also made its largest acquisition to date to boost the revenue of OSG with its&#160;purchase of aQuantive digital advertising and marketing services firm for $6 billion&#160;earlier this year.In addition to making acquisitions, Microsoft also has been partnering with online content and service providers to offer online advertising. On Monday, the company announced a deal to be the&#160;exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising for CNBC.com, a deal similar to ones it already has&#160;in place with Facebook globally&#160;and&#160;Digg in the United States.All of these efforts are part of a now two-year push to add services and content for its online brands to boost the revenue of its Online Services Business segment. To date, Wall Street analysts have said they are unimpressed by the growth of this segment, and Microsoft&#39;s moves seem to be evidence the company is getting that message loud and clear.Revenue from online services grew only 8.7 percent from $2.3 million to $2.5 million for Microsoft&#39;s fiscal year 2007, ended June 30. For the company&#39;s first-quarter 2008, during which the aQuantive deal closed, revenue from OSG was better, up 25 percent year over year. But even Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell acknowledged when first-quarter earnings were revealed that Microsoft would like to see more growth from this business segment.
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REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 21  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp.  and Best Buy Co. Inc. today announced a partnership to meet the needs of small-business customers who would like to establish a Web presence but are reluctant to create a site on their own.
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Tokyo, June 27 (Jiji Press)--KDDI Corp.  and Microsoft Co. said Wednesday that they have agreed on a comprehensive tie-up in new software services for corporate customers.  Under the accord, the major Japanese telecommunications career and the Japanese unit of Microsoft Corp.
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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.
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PC Magazine - Microsoft announces Expression Studio, a new integrated suite of its design tools, including the new Expression Media asset management tool; the software giant also announces a new preview of its "Flash killer" technology.
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Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it will buy a small Chicago-based technology company and add its group-chat software to a broad vision for integrated office communications programs.
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Microsoft has launched a partner program around Office Live, which it is grooming to be a major product.
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SEATTLE  - Two dozen designers, engineers and strategists toil in an unusual research lab on the Microsoft campus. Awkwardly dubbed the Mobile and Embedded Devices Experience design center, or MEDX, it is where Microsoft plots strategies to sell souped-up cellphones that act a lot like PCs.
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In a move to quell rising consumer frustrations, Microsoft on Thursday announced it has acquired Giant Company Software, maker of well-reviewed but little-used anti-spyware software, for an undisclosed sum.