Microsoft Acquires Group-Chat Company Parlano
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On Wednesday, Microsoft said it will acquire Chicago-based Parlano and will integrate the company&#39;s enterprise group chat technology, known as MindAlign, into Microsoft&#39;s unified communications products.
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SEATTLE/BOSTON  - Microsoft Corp  acquired  a start-up company called Calista Technologies and expanded its  alliance with Citrix Systems , targeting VMware Inc's   early lead in virtualization technology.
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Cisco Systems is making an acquisition designed to reinforce its security lineup, the company said Thursday. The networking giant announced it will pay $74 million in cash for San Francisco start-up Perfigo, a developer of network access control products.
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Microsoft Corp.  on Tuesday  said it has set a communications alliance with Canada&#039;s Nortel  Networks Corp.  the latest step in Microsoft&#039;s  drive to promote software as a way to simplify how workers  communicate.
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Technology giant Microsoft Corp said  on Friday that it had offered to acquire Internet media company  Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion in cash and stock.
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Microsoft Corp  said on  Wednesday it has acquired Multimap, one of Britain's top online  mapping companies.
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Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it has acquired a British online mapping company to enhance its existing Windows Live Web-based services.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's goal to provide a unified communications infrastructure for the enterprise moved forward Tuesday with the release of a private beta of software it sees as its communications hub. The company released Office Communications Server 2007 to about 2,500 IT professionals in a private beta, said Paul Duffy, a group product manager at Microsoft. It's the first time Microsoft has offered software for making voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) part of integrated communications services alongside corporate instant messaging, e-mail, and video conferencing all running on one IP network, he said. Office Communications Server 2007 runs in conjunction with Office Communicator 2007, which is the accompanying desktop software. In July, Microsoft announced aÂ strategic alliance with Nortel NetworksÂ calling for interoperability between Microsoft communications software and networking infrastructure from Nortel. Office Communications Server 2007 also will interoperate with products from Avaya, NEC Phillips, and Siemens CommunicationsÂ through partnerships Microsoft has with those vendors, Duffy said. "Customers can deploy Office Communications Server and Communicator with infrastructure they have -- with IP telephony that they might have from one of those vendors -- or they can deploy it in conjunction with an IP PSTN (public switched telephone network) gateway," he said. Though Microsoft is working with vendors on VOIP, there is some belief in the industry that the company eventually will look to provide the entire software infrastructure for VOIP and other communications offerings. Such a move would hardly be a stretch, as Microsoft's strategy for entering new markets has often been to partner with companies that specialize in certain software until it is able to build out its own portfolio. Microsoft does not just aim to enter the VOIP-enablement market with Office Communications Server 2007, but rather provide a software hub that will allow the various facets of network communication to interoperate, Duffy said. For instance, by using Office Communications Server with Microsoft's Exchange Server messaging software and Outlook e-mail client, a user can respond to an e-mail received in Exchange with a VOIP call using Communications Server and Communicator, he said. Office Communications Server and Office Communicator 2007 are expected to be available in the second calendar quarter of 2007.
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MicrosoftÂ  has bolstered its group-policy desktop management offering with the acquisition of New Hampshire software vendor DesktopStandard.
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IBM has acquired a Web conferencing service provider, it announced as part of a flurry of unified communications moves on Wednesday.
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A fast-growing organization that aims to help users share their personal contacts between different social media and other Web 2.0 services and includes Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Plaxo has signed a more traditional heavy hitter up to the cause: Microsoft.
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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.
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Microsoft (Quote, Chart) and Polycom have formed a multi-year joint venture that will add Polycom&#39;s conferencing functionality to Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
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(InfoWorld) - IBM's Sametime has gained interoperability with public instant messaging networks from AOL and Google, and will interoperate with the one from Yahoo in a matter of weeks. IBM plans to make the announcement on Wednesday, almost a year afterÂ disclosing its intention to provide this interoperabilityÂ for Sametime 7.5, the newest version of the enterprise IM system. The gaping hole in the announcement is Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger, which, with AOL's AIM and Yahoo Messenger, is one the world's three largest consumer IM networks. Microsoft sells an enterprise IM system called Live Communications Server (LCS) that competes directly with Sametime. LCS interoperates with AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger. Akiba Saeedi, program director for Real Time Collaboration products at IBM's Lotus division, declined to comment on why Windows Live Messenger is missing from the Sametime interoperability picture. The Sametime interoperability comes via a separate gateway server to which connectors for each IM network can be added at no extra cost beyond the price of the Sametime license, Saeedi said. The gateway server provides a variety of management capabilities for IT departments to establish user policies and access rights and in general have control over the IM communications employees engage in with people on the Yahoo, AOL, and Google networks. Initially, the interoperability will be limited to exchanging text messages, but IBM wants to expand and deepen it to include other types of communications that have become common in IM services, like voice and video chats, file sharing and Web conferencing. Instant messaging has in recent years become an essential tool in the workplace, so opening Sametime up to these external IM networks will allow its users to communicate with clients and partners who use AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk for business, Saeedi said. Â
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NEW YORK/SEATTLE  - Microsoft Corp.  is in  talks to buy Tellme Networks Inc., the privately owned voice  recognition technology company, two sources familiar with the  situation said on Tuesday.
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Microsoft plans to release in December new software that secures instant messaging and other communications within big companies. The Redmond, Wash.
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Microsoftâs MSN division will be holding a teleconference today at 1 pm EST to announce their newest addition to the MSN network.