SAP, the biggest business software company in the world, has announced that it will be cutting 3,000 jobs whilst warning that cuts may go even further. It has also frozen the wages of the entire 51,500 person workforce.
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Proof that Microsoft wants Windows 7 out this year is mounting steadily. Microsoft has confirmed on their blog that it is planning to give us a release candidate of their new operating system before the final version is ready. What this basically means is there will not be a second beta of the new OS before the final version. This goes a long way to backing up the standard thinking in the industry that Windows 7 will be with us somewhere in the third quarter of 2009, early 4th at the latest.
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We reported recently that Microsoft had been charged with breaking competition laws by the European Commission and were liable for an extremely hefty fine as a result. Well, it would seem that the EC isn’t done with the tech industry – IBM may be next.

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Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO is instigating a companywide cost-cutting regime in response to the continued economic strife. “We’re certainly in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions,” said Ballmer during a conference call to analysts this week. The major costs being cut are, as usual, staff. Microsoft will axe 5000 jobs in a process Ballmer is describing as “putting the brakes on.”
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A Shanghai court has convicted 11 people of violating Chinese copyright laws and joining a complex piracy ring which has been counterfeiting  and distributing Microsoft software for globally for years.

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Interesting developments over at Apple; the company has announced that Steve Jobs will not be giving the keynote speech at the Macworld show this year, as had been planned. Furthermore, this will be the last Macworld show that the company will be attending at all. Jobs will be replace d this year by Phil Schiller, Apple marketing chief.
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In a move that will be cautiously welcomed by civil liberties campaigners, Microsoft have indicated that they are willing to scale back their policy on data retention in line with European guidelines which stipulate that search data should not be kept longer than six months. However, they have a condition; they want Google to do the same before they will commit.
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It would appear that a beta version of Windows 7 will be available in January. Microsoft have made it fairly clear through a blog on Technet that attendees of the MSDN developer conferences will be given their very own DVD containing the coveted Windows 7, beta version. Unfortunately for developers in this country, getting your hands on one will require a trip to the states, since that’s where all the conferences are being held.
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Microsoft is attempting to revive its much maligned Live Search Cash Back Service. Microsoft had started offering discounts at sites like eBay in return for a certain number of searches using Live Search this year. However, the system came in for criticism when it emerged that the discounts were fairly stingy (usually in the region of 5%) and also tended to take months to actually materialise.

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Microsoft and Yahoo seem finally ready to link up and make a concerted effort to fight the dominance of market leader, Google. The resignation of Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s beleaguered CEO is thought to have been the catalyst for renewed interest from the software company.
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It seems everyone wants to jump on the social networking bandwagon these days. First, Yahoo announces plans to group their whole raft of services into one large social network, now it seems that Microsoft wants to turn Windows Live into something like Facebook.

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As Yahoo crumbles before our eyes, it would appear that closest competitor, Microsoft is going from strength to strength. The third largest search engine provider in the world seems to have struck a deal with old enemies, Sun Microsystems to, they hope, drastically increase their share of the search market.
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The spike in share price that Yahoo experienced earlier in the week may prove to be short-lived, considering what Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s Chief Executive said yesterday in Sydney, Australia. Balmer claimed that Microsoft was no longer interested in taking over Yahoo, which comes as some surprise considering the aggressive attempts the company has made to buy them in the past.
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The troubled advertising deal between Google and Yahoo has been officially put out of its misery by the search engine giant. Since its inception, the deal had come up against strong criticism from advertisers, who feared prices would rise and the US Department of Justice, who feared that the deal would be anti-competitive.
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