Microsoft to buy Parlano
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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. Microsoft's plan to acquire privately held Parlano is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Parlano has about 50 employees, which Microsoft eventually plans to relocate to its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Parlano offers MindAlign, a group chat application that enablesÂ in an enterprise to maintain a discussion in instant-messaging that persists over time, said Microsoft Unified Communications spokesman Clint Patterson. For example, the application is used by large financial services companies such as Deutsche Bank and UBS so employees in major cities around the world such as Paris, London, Tokyo and New York can keep track of chat discussions on specific topics that may have occurred even when they were not in the office. "Traders around the world can maintain a discussion over a security or a fund ... and when folks in New York come in to work they can see what happened [overnight]," he said. In addition to counting top financial services firms as customers, Parlano's software is also popular with call centers and companies in the technology industry, according to Microsoft. Parlano had already built MindAlign to run onÂ Office Communications Server 2007, which was released earlier this year. Currently, users of the software can access Web presence information from Communications Server to see which members of discussion groups are available to chat, Patterson said. This integration should make it easier for Microsoft to build MindAlign's functionality directly into Office Communications Server and its client-side counterpart, Office Communicator, which the company plans to do. MindAlign also runs on Office Live Communications Server 2005, the previous version of Office Communications Server 2007. Microsoft dropped the "Live" part of the name last year and recast the software as a hub through which enterprises can run various forms of communications, including VOIP, enterprise instant-messaging, interactive voice response systems and video conferencing. The company's recent investment to make unified communications a priority has it butting heads with more established players in networking and communications, such as Avaya Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
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The Washington Post Co. is buying Microsoft&#39;s online magazine Slate. The acquisition by the Post will reduce Slate&#39;s presence in the Puget Sound area, said Jacob Weisberg, its New York-based editor.
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The Washington Post Company is expected to announce that it has purchased Slate, an online newsmagazine owned by Microsoft.
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The Washington Post Co. WPO.N said  on Tuesday it would buy Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O online  magazine Slate.
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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 said on Wednesday it would pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent minority equity stake in Facebook in a deal that values the popular social networking Web site at $15 billion.
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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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Microsoft is buying Danger, the mobile software company behind the T-Mobile Sidekick.
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Microsoft Corp is talking to Facebook  about buying a minority stake in the fast-growing online social  network that could value the company at $10 billion or more,  the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Monday.
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Microsoft Corp.  is in talks  to buy privately-held Tellme Networks, a maker of Web-based  voice technology, for about $800 million, the Wall Street  Journal reported in its online edition on Monday.
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WASHINGTON - The Washington Post Co. announced today that it is buying Slate, the online magazine started by computer giant Microsoft in 1996.
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Networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. said that it intends to buy Perfigo Inc. for $74 million in cash, boosting the company's efforts to secure network "endpoints" and protect them from worms, viruses and hacking.
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Microsoft will take a 240-million-dollar stake in the wildly popular social-networking website Facebook as part of an expansion of the strategic alliance of the two firms, the companies said Wednesday.
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OSLO/LAS VEGAS  - Microsoft Corp  bid $1.2  billion to buy Norwegian business search software company Fast  Search & Transfer  in a deal focused on helping  corporations manage and sift through their own files, a growing  market also targeted by Google Inc .
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Google Inc.  said on Monday it has agreed to buy Web-based security provider Postini for $625 million, expanding its package of online applications to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s  Office.
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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 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.