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Microsoft and Yahoo deal approved by regulators

Jenny Sanderson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:00:58 +0000

A deal struck by two online superpowers, Microsoft and Yahoo has been cleared by European Union and US regulators. First announced in July 2009, clearance by regulators will see Microsoft allowed to buy Yahoo’s internet search and search advertisement business. This move comes as Microsoft attempt to increase their share in the Google dominated online search engine market.

The EU commission gave Microsoft their backing and stated that the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition”.

As it stands Microsoft and Yahoo share 10% of the online search market in the EU where as Google control around 90% of it. Just how big an effect this deal will have is set to be interesting as it is difficult to see how Microsoft will wrestle any of that 90% away from Google who have coined the internet search phrase “Google it”.

Chris Green, technology analyst at DMG Europe doesn’t provide a positive outlook for Microsoft:

“This deal gives Microsoft a bigger slice of the internet advertising business, but it is still miles and miles behind Google,” he said.

“Microsoft’s Bing is technically a very good search engine, but no-one uses it, and it doesn’t currently make a profit.
“The deal with Yahoo should turn it into a not-too-shabby and profitable world number two search engine. But still no Google.”

The ten year deal will see Microsoft’s Bing search engine used by the Yahoo site with the respective companies sharing the revenue. Yahoo will be providing the main advertisement sales team for Bing.

Now lets talk figures, under the term of the deal Microsoft will keep 12% of the search engine revenue garnered by Yahoo for the first five years of the agreement whilst paying Yahoo the remaining 88%.

The deal is set to be implemented in the next few days and comes off the back of other significant deals for both companies, Microsoft with Facebook and Yahoo with Nectar, it looks as though we may see some interesting collaborations in the online world this year.

Facebook and Microsoft shake hands on new deal

Matt Thomas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:37:41 +0000

Two giants of the online world, Microsoft and Facebook, have come together to form a mutually beneficial agreement. The companies have decided to revise their search pact into a global deal. This would mean that the social networking behemoth Facebook will sell its own advertisements and receive more of Bing’s features on its web results.

The new deal will allow Facebook users to receive the full-featured version of Bing beyond links for the site’s web search. The deal is seen as more of a ‘global pact’ that will bring Bing to Facebook users abroad, and Facebook will in turn sell its own display ads.

Jon Tinter – General Manager at Bing outlined the thinking behind the new deal:

“We have deepened our joint work together on web search to provide even more compelling experiences to Facebook users with Bing. As part of this expanded cooperation in search, our two companies will soon provide Facebook users with a more complete search experience by providing full access to great Bing features beyond a set of links, including richer answers combined with tools that help customers make faster, smarter decisions.”

He added: “Second, we are extending our cooperation outside the US, bringing the Bing-Facebook search integration to the more than 400 million people using Facebook around the world.”

Facebook and Microsoft have teamed up in the past and appear to have quite a friendly relationship that will surely only benefit us as users.

Microsoft to pay Murdoch to shun Google

James Oliver — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:57:56 +0000

No one would be surprised to learn of delight at Microsoft related to the news that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, are thinking of removing their content, which includes some of the world’s most popular newspapers and television channels, from Google. There is famously no love lost between the companies. However, few commentators would have expected Microsoft to wade in, in quite the style they are thought to be contemplating.

The rumour is essentially that Microsoft is approaching the big online publishers, including News Corp, with a view to getting them to remove their content from Google’s listings. Details are sketchy at best, but Microsoft is also rumoured to be offering some kind of financial incentive for the move.

This is of course all to do with Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, which is continuing to struggle to catch up with market leader, Google. At this stage, Microsoft will be reasoning, anything that hurts Google helps Bing.

Photobucket valued at a mere $60 Million

James Oliver — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:26:44 +0000

As you may have heard, if you’ve been paying attention, MySpace/News Corp are currently in the process of trying to sell Photobucket, the video and image sharing service it acquired for $250 million dollars with an additional $50 million earnout in 2007. The buyer is a company called Ontela, who come with 40 million backing from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures arm. The deal with Ontela is thought to be at an advanced stage though sources close to both companies are putting the valuation at around $60 million, an 83% reduction from what MySpace paid.

If reports of the valuation are correct, then it’s one hell of an embarrassment for MySpace and its backer News Corp to have gotten a valuation so catastrophically wrong.

This kind of publicity is the last thing that MySpace needed. The social network is increasingly seen as losing out to the simpler more user friendly Facebook and the sheer publicity of Twitter, with many claiming that the only real USP it currently retains is customisability and some cache within the music business.

For the time being Ontela are not currently commenting on the story. Nor, unsurprisingly, are MySpace.

Corporate politics from Ballmer

Matt Thomas — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:04:00 +0000

Another day, another display of pettiness from a member of the digital elite. Hot on the heels of Google bigwigs refusing to refer to Twitter by name, referring to it instead as ‘micro-blogging’ (as if we don’t know who they mean), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has gone out of his way to avoid mentioning Google in a recent interview. When TechCrunch interviewed the Microsoft head this week, he refused to call their main search competitor by name, referring to the company repeatedly as, ‘the incumbent’.

It does seem a little small of him though some might say that Google started it. Many people saw the inclusion of the phrase ‘do no evil’ in the Google charter as a subtle dig at Microsoft, implying of course that the previous ‘most powerful company in computing’ had done some evil.

It’s hard to see what, if anything, Ballmer’s playing at by doing this. It might be that he’s trying to avoid giving Google free publicity or implying that he believes they are the market leaders at all… Or, on the other hand, he might just have been feeling a bit tetchy at being very much not the incumbent currently.

Ballmer rubbishes eBook chatter

Matt Thomas — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:05:35 +0000

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer has put an end to persistent rumours that the world’s premier software manufacturer is looking to move into the burgeoning ebook reader market. Speaking at an event in the Netherlands, Ballmer informed a room full of journalists in no uncertain terms that Microsoft had no interest in doing so. The Microsoft head stated that the company already had ‘A device for reading. It’s the most popular device in the world. It’s the PC’

Ballmer did state, however, that he was looking forward to further collaboration with Amazon and their ilk in order to bring more ebooks to the PC itself, and made the point that Microsoft already offers free downloadable ebook reading software, Microsoft reader. However, it doesn’t exactly take a cynic to point out that the audience of people looking to read books on PC screens is going to be fairly small.

Ebooks are thought by many to be the breakout consumer technology over the next few years and some are already criticising Microsoft for missing yet another opportunity early on. Only time will tell, though Microsoft arguably has form in this department…

Ballmer Wows Press conference with Language Skills

Jenny Sanderson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:23:12 +0000

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer wowed an audience of government ministers and company executives at the opening of Microsoft’s new corporate HQ in France when he gave a ten minute speech entirely in French. Guests and dignitaries were apparently not expecting to be spoken to in their own language by one of the most important men in the computer industry.

After apologising for his bad French in an accent described by onlookers as ‘well-pronounced,’ Ballmer announced that he was going to carry out his presentation in the language of Molier. The stunt was undoubtedly calculated to curry favour with his audience, and it would appear to have worked, especially the part when Ballmer exclaimed, “France means so much to me. I love your country.”

All showboating aside, the speech made the point that speaking at the opening was more than just a pit-stop to the Microsoft CEO. Ballmer had clearly prepared fastidiously.

Ballmer learned to speak French during his time in Belgium during the 1960s. This is not the first time he has shown off his language skills, making comments in slightly more broken French to a Belgian press conference in April, 2008.

Students to get Windows 7 for £30

Matt Thomas — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:51:18 +0000

With the graduate jobs market tougher than ever before and student debt spiralling out of control, it seems as if there are fewer and fewer reasons to for students to be cheerful these days. However, if you are currently studying there is one reason to be cheerful. In a move timed to coincide with the start of the university term, Microsoft has offered anyone with a .edu address (i.e., @aberystwyth.ac.uk) a special deal that allows them to purchase the Windows 7 operating system for a mere £30.

“Students will benefit from many of Windows 7’s unique functions and applications which make PCs easier, simpler and more fun to use. For those students who have the latest laptops with touch screen technology, Windows 7 comes with enhanced capabilities for an enriched touch experience.” – says Microsoft.

The deal will be available from the 1st of October and, bearing in mind the price conscious nature of most students, few would bet against this being a very successful offer.

Carol Bartz: Stop talking about Microsoft!

Matt Thomas — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:16:37 +0000

Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz has angrily asked the media to stop talking about the £47.5 billion dollar Microsoft buyout rejected by her predecessor late last year. The head of the number two search engine is apparently tired of hearing about the deal, stating…

“Yahoo! actually has a bright, bright future, probably cleaner and simpler future without thinking there’s any Microsoft connection. We’d be better off if we’d never heard the word Microsoft.”

Tough talk indeed. Unfortunately, no amount of sabre rattling is going to change the prevailing opinion that turning down the Microsoft deal was a phenomenally daft thing to do. £47.5 billion was a generous evaluation at the time and the decision to reject the offer ushered in a period of free-fall that, within months, saw the company cut around a thousand jobs, wipe two thirds off the share price and generally slip to a level where they couldn’t hope to get a valuation of anywhere near that figure.

It’s unsurprising that she doesn’t want to hear about it anymore, though it’ll be interesting to see exactly what kind of ‘bright future,’ Carol Bartz has in mind.

Microsoft tries to out-Google Google

Jenny Sanderson — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:21:04 +0000

Today Microsoft announced their plans to test a version of productivity suite that will be compatible with a new range of web based office applications, you’ve guessed it, just like Google. The Microsoft Web suite will apparently be available to more than 400 million Windows Live consumers for free, though it will also be available on a subscription basis to Microsoft volume licensing consumers.

The new suite is slated for release at some point in the first half of next year, though whether that will be to enough to compete with the burgeoning popularity of Google’s cloud computing solutions has yet to be seen.

The thinking behind ‘Bing’

Matt Thomas — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:48:03 +0000

You’ll probably know by now, whether from this blog or one of the hundreds of others that have been covering this, that Microsoft have named their new search engine ‘bing.’ Now, to some that name may seem like just a random title picked out of the air at great expense by a marketing firm, however, to Mr. Steven Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft it is a clever marketing ploy rich in potential to become a household name.

Not convinced? Well, allow me to make his case. Bing is memorable one word brand that has strong connotations of that eureka moment when you find a solution to your problem – also the strip club in the Sopranos, but we’ll leave that aside for now. It also, and this is the important bit, has the potential to be used as a verb easily, i.e. ‘Why don’t you bing it,’ ‘I binged it and this came up.’

There’s also the plus that such a word cannot be easily misunderstood as it is essentially meaningless. As Steve Ballmer says, “It works globally, and doesn’t have negative, unusual connotations.”

Fair enough I guess but not everyone agrees, some experts are criticising the use of a word with such little meaning and pointing out that they will have to spend a lot of money creating any sort of brand association.

Kumo’s name to Change

James Oliver — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:48:32 +0000

For several months Microsoft has been testing a new search engine, the working title up till now has been Kumo, though Microsoft were always keen to stress that this was not a final name. According to reports the name is indeed set to change ahead of the rumoured $80 – 100 million dollar advertising push that Microsoft has planned for the new venture.

According to Advertising Age the new name, or in fact, the first official name, is set to be ‘Bing.’ No explanation has been offered as of yet for the enigmatic title and Microsoft are declining to comment for the time being, though it is thought that more will be revealed this week when Steve Ballmer speaks at the ‘All Things Digital’ conference in California.

The anticipated advertising spend has also raised eyebrows around silicon valley. The amount is thought to be very high, even for Microsoft, especially when compared to the barely 25 million dollars that Google spent on all its advertising last year. However, those expecting a repeat of the confrontational advertising approach that the company has been taking with Apple look set to be disappointed, Google will apparently not be mentioned by name.

EU Sets Hearing Date. But will Microsoft Show up?

Matt Thomas — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:08:38 +0000

The European Union has set a rough date of June the 3rd – 5th for an oral antitrust hearing to allow Microsoft to defend their practice of bundling Internet Explorer with their Windows package.

The EU have been investigating whether or not the practice is anti-competitive since last year, if they find in against Microsoft then, it is though the company could be in for yet another sizable fine from the European regulatory body.

However, Microsoft are as yet undecided about whether or not they will actually be attending the hearing. Despite requesting the opportunity to speak, something they described as a ‘procedural matter,’ the company apparently feels that their interests may be better served in the short term by simply keeping their mouths shut.

The charge levied by the EU is that Microsoft distorts the market, by piggybacking its Internet Explorer browser onto an operating platform that is near enough ubiquitous throughout the PC market. The charge was initially brought to the EU’s attention by smaller browser Opera, though as the process has picked up steam bigger companies like Mozilla corp and Google have come on board ad third party participants, allowing them to act in an advisory capacity to the EU.

Microsoft faces Facts

Matt Thomas — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:34:08 +0000

It appears, unofficially at least, that Microsoft has accepted the total lack of love for Vista exhibited by the world’s computer users. In all official communications the company is remaining fiercely loyal to its troubled Vista operating system, even halting free customer support for XP in an effort to move people on quicker. Unofficially however, the company appears to have accepted that XP is not going to die easily and could even be around into the next decade. In response to this, they have allowed computer manufacturers to continue offering XP as the OS on new systems.

Essentially, Microsoft have caved in to pressure from computer manufacturers. These comapnies have been able to see that XP isn’t going anywhere for months now, by simply comparing their sales figures for Vista enabled PCs to XP enabled ones and, in all likelihood, have put pressure on Microsoft to take this decision.

As a result, we’ll definitely be seeing XP enabled computers on the shelves in 2010 and it would come as no surprise to even see some new systems running XP in 2011, long after the release of Windows 7 – a release which now appears even more critical for the tech giant.