Beijing cancels purchase of Microsoft software
611240
The Beijing municipal government has canceled an order for Microsoft computer software following official complaints that local governments are not buying enough software developed domestically.
396051
The Beijing municipal government may reconsider its software procurement since it became target of criticism for giving Microsoft the lion&#39;s share of a large software purchase order, analysts say.
172351
LUXEMBOURG/BRUSSELS  - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O  was ordered by a European Union court to change its business  practices and immediately market a stripped-down version of  Windows after it lost an appeal to delay sanctions imposed  earlier this year.
436866
Chinese computer maker Lenovo's suspends trade in its shares in Hong Kong as reports link it to $2bn deal for IBM's PC  business.
96773
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft wants to play a bigger role in China's living rooms, and the company is willing to spend millions of dollars to get there. The company's latest home-entertainment moves in China include aÂ planned $12.3 million investmentÂ in Sichuan Changhong Electric. The deal, announced earlier this week, gives Microsoft a small stake in one of China's largest TV makers, which in turn agreed to develop TVs and other products able to link with the Internet. "Microsoft and Changhong have partnered in exploring the use of digital media technologies to benefit the consumers for a better in-home networked digital entertainment experience," Microsoft said Friday in an e-mail statement. Its investment is intended to build goodwill, rather than bring a specific product to market. "The investment is more like a gesture of saying, 'We're friends strategically,'" said Jason Yin, managing director at In-Stat China. Critics have compared the Changhong deal to Venus, an ill-fated project launched in 1999 to develop Windows CE set-top boxes for the Chinese market. But that's not an accurate comparison. "It's very different," Yin said. Unlike Venus, Microsoft isn't trying to bring a new piece of hardware to market. Current versions of Windows are capable of connecting a TV with the Internet, and these types of systems are already available in China. Changhong's own M10 Living Room Entertainment Center is an example. Based on Windows XP Media Center Edition, the M10 is designed to connect with a television and comes with a remote control and wireless keyboard, allowing users to access music, videos and the Internet from a couch instead of a desk. Changhong also offers other consumer products that connect to the Internet. For instance, it sells a 32-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) television with a camera that can be used for Internet video calls. And the company has worked with China Telecommunications Group Corp., one of the country's two major fixed-line operators, to sell IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) set-top boxes. Microsoft hopes closer ties with Changhong will strengthen the channel through which its home-entertainment software reaches Chinese consumers. Those products include Windows Media Center and Mediaroom, the company's IPTV software. "Microsoft now has a better understanding of the value of local partners in penetrating China's market," Yin said, citing the example of Xiamen Amoi Electronics, which develops and sells Windows Mobile smart phones in China. Whether Microsoft's small investment in Changhong yields the desired result remains to be seen. In past years, the company used investments to build closer relationships with Chinese partners to varying degrees of success. "The investment doesn't always mean they get what they want," Yin said. The Changhong investment is just one part of Microsoft's home-entertainment push in China, and the company continues to seek out new deals and alliances. On Thursday, Microsoft signed an agreement with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the country's second-largest media company. Under the terms of that deal, SMG will use Microsoft products across its new-media division, which includes Internet video, IPTV and mobile television. The partners hope their combined strengths in software and content will convince more companies to join them. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Â
149422
Company says software giant excluded app from market, but Microsoft says Novell's mismanagement caused WordPerfect to lose favor with consumers.
651660
Microsoft watched a software deal with China go bust less than two weeks into the contract. And Beijing is pushing its government IT officials to buy local. But China remains a vibrant market where tech firms have to stay in play. -washingtonpost.com
370650
China Mobile suspends the Chinese Web portal for a year.
22984
Microsoft Corp., the world&#39;s largest software maker, asked a European Union court to suspend an order by antitrust regulators forcing it to disclose information on the inner workings of its Windows product to competitors.
632397
The chief executive of Microsoft Corp's  Greater China business, Chen Yongzheng, has resigned, the world's largest software maker said on Wednesday.
203127
After the deal it struck with the European Commission, Microsoft is withdrawing its appeals as no longer necessary.
516064
LISBON - Customers watching for Microsoft Corp. to make a headline-grabbing buy in the business applications market faced disappointment Tuesday as company Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer ruled out acquisitions of PeopleSoft Inc., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG.
208459
US software giant Microsoft and Chinese Internet search portal Baidu said they were joining forces in China.
90332
Microsoft (Quote, Chart) has lost another partner to market its single sign-on services after auction giant eBay (Quote, Chart) said it will no longer support Passport and its .
513187
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft may have to pull its Office suite from the shelves in South Korea as a result of losing a patent lawsuit in that country, according to published reports. Several news outlets reported Monday that a South Korean Supreme Court ruling on Friday refused a request from Microsoft that patents obtained by Hankuk Aviation University professor Lee Keung-Haie in 1997 be nullified. The decision strengthens the case of Lee and the company acting as his agent, called P and IB, which filed for damages against Microsoft in 2000 for infringing on Lee's patents, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse . Now that Microsoft's request has been struck down, P and IB leader Kim Kil-Hae said the company and Lee have a better chance at winning damages in their lawsuit and also in stopping the sale of the version of Office that includes the patented technology, according to a report by the AFP. Lee and P and IB are seeking damages of 70 billion won, or about $75 million. In an e-mailed statement through its public relations firm, Microsoft said it does not anticipate any interruption in the sales of Office in Korea, and is positive about its chance in the current infringement case that is still pending. Lee and P and IB filed suit against Microsoft in 2000 for infringing on Lee's patents for technologies that automatically switch the input mode of Office between the Korean and English languages. That case remains unsettled in an appeals court after Microsoft filed a separate lawsuit attempting to invalidate Lee's patents. The patent dispute is just one of Microsoft's legal woes in South Korea. In May,Â South Korea ruled against MicrosoftÂ in an antitrust case, forcing the company to sell a version of its Windows OS without its media player and instant-messaging programs after finding that their inclusion breached antitrust laws. An antitrust case in Europe also has not gone well for the Redmond, Washington, software vendor. In March 2004, the European Commission ruled that Microsoft must sell Windows without media player software in the European Union to compete fairly with rivals there. The ruling alsoÂ ordered Microsoft to provide informationÂ that allows rival server software vendors to design server products that interoperate well with Windows PCs. Microsoft is still embroiled in its legal battle with the Commission and continues to file documents to prove it is complying with the antitrust ruling. The Commission fined Microsoft $357 million in July for failing to comply with the antitrust order, and could face more fines of up to $3 million per day if it does not meet the Commission's latest deadline to prove compliance.
642904
InfoWorld - IBM sold off a chunk of its stake in Lenovo Group, leading the world&#39;s third-largest PC vendor to temporarily suspend trading of its shares in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
431296
China is becoming increasingly alarmed that Microsoft is winning the lion&#39;s share of too many government contracts to supply software.