microsoft

Microsoft buries programmers in 30,000 pages of documentation

Jordan Golson · 02/21/08 03:40PM

To fend off European regulators, Microsoft has released 30,000 pages of documentation about its development practices. Company spokespeople insist the online reference library will make Microsoft more "open" — a word used 17 times in the press release today as Microsoft complies with a ruling it fought tooth and nail. Amateurs. The White House would have cranked up the pagecount to at least 3 million. (Photo by AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Hacker finds Microsoft Office file formats actually make sense

Paul Boutin · 02/21/08 01:38AM

Software developer and essayist Joel Spolsky went dumpster-diving into Microsoft Office's intractable file formats, the curse of freedom-loving Unixtards like me. Spolsky's findings? The formats were designed to make Office run fast on 20-megahertz CPUs with 1 MB of memory, yet to also remember all the options set on each file by years' worth of menu-addled Office applications. This is great news — it means someday I may get Word 2007 to stop unchecking my template options on me every. Single. God damned time.

Microsoft VP always has a hot seat

Jordan Golson · 02/20/08 07:00PM

Microsoft executive Steve Berkowitz, head of the MSN online division, got his house featured in this month's 425 magazine, a fancy lifestyle magazine about Seattle's eastern suburbs. Want to live like a high-powered VP? Berkowitz's home has five bedrooms, a luxury spa bathroom with soaking tub, media room, large gourmet kitchen, wine cellar, and a stunning view. My favorite part? Berkowitz's wife Carol explains:

Owen Thomas · 02/20/08 02:50PM

How much will Yahoo's new severance package cost Microsoft, or any other acquirer? As much as $3 billion. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Ballmer remains the underdog in Yahoo proxy fight

Nicholas Carlson · 02/20/08 11:39AM

CEO Steve Ballmer doesn't want to raise Microsoft's bid for Yahoo, preferring to begin a proxy fight for control over Yahoo's board instead. But it's likely he'll have to soon offer more anyway. According to the WSJ, proxy fights rarely result in wins for the aggressor. Since 2001, only five of 27 such battles resulted in board seats for the hostile bidder. As a result, suitors raised their bids in 63 percent of all hostile approaches over the last five years.

Gates: The $40 billion is for Yahoo engineers

Nicholas Carlson · 02/20/08 09:45AM

Microsoft will spend $40 billion on Yahoo for its people, Bill Gates told an audience at Stanford yesterday. "Yes, the advertisers and the number of end users is good," Gates said, "but we'd put the people and the engineering as the key thing." Well, if that's the case, Mr. Gates, here's the good news: Yahoo just laid off a portion of its engineers. They need jobs. And the rest? Their 2006 retention packages just vested. Your shareholders would prefer you make them an offer directly. (Photo by cackhanded)

Yahoo's last talent retention package just expired

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 07:20PM

Why is top talent fleeing Yahoo? Not because of Microsoft. BoomTown reports that back in late 2006, Yahoo launched "Project Engage," which included handing out retention packages full of option grants and restricted stocks units (RSUs). And guess what: Those packages didn't fully vest until February 2. That's the day after Microsoft announced its bid, sending Yahoo's shares skyrocketing just in time. Could Microsoft have timed its bid any better to bleed Yahoo? Says one Yahoo executive: "Everyone was just biding their time for the RSU to vest," one Yahoo exec said. "The Microsoft bid just gives everyone an excuse to leave." (Photo by cmccartney)

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 05:30PM

What at Microsoft made Scoble cry? He's not saying, but the betting's on a new desktop app for Windows that's kind of like a Google Earth but for space. Called WorldWide Telescope, it uses Hubble telescope imagery instead of satellite imagery. Microsoft plans to launch it at the TED Conference in Monterey, California on February 27. [TechCrunch]

Jordan Golson · 02/19/08 04:30PM

Microsoft and Netflix may partner to offer movie downloads over Xbox Live. An announcement would likely come tomorrow, at the Game Developer's Conference. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is a member of Microsoft's board of directors. [MSNBC]

Bradley Horowitz thanks the doomed and the departed

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 03:40PM

I once saw the first twenty of minutes of this horror movie. Can't remember the name. But it starts with a bunch of teenagers heading out on a road trip to the beach. As they merge onto the highway, a horrific pile-up goes down all around them. The camera hops around showing how each person dies. I remember, for example, a truck dropping a log from its flatbed trailer and the thing going through a windshield. Splat. Blood on broken glass. But then the main character snaps out of it and realizes it was all a dream. She and her friends are still waiting at the highway onramp. Scared witless, our protagonist refuses to drive on. And then, the car accident she presaged actually happens. Later, all the people who would have died in the accident gather at the police station. A creepy kid in the corner warns them: On this very day last year, some guy dreamed an airplane would go down and he and his friends refused to board. The airplane went down. He died anyway. So did all his friends. Creepy kid says: Death will get us all. Then for the rest of the movie it does. Anyway, don't know why I brought this up, but here's a list of names Yahoo executive Bradley Horowitz thanked on his way out.

Skeptical Microsoft shareholders know best

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 01:40PM

Between February 1, when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced his plans to plunder Yahoo, and February 15, Microsoft shares dropped 13 percent. This is bad news for the merged company's prospects. According to 2004 study, when the market immediately disapproves of a company's deal, 75 percent of the time, that company continues to underperform the market index for at least the next two years. (Photo by Jesper Ronn-Jensen)

Ballmer begins proxy fight in earnest

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 12:47PM

Refusing to up his bid for Yahoo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will this week begin in earnest a proxy fight — a direct appeal to shareholders, bypassing Yahoo management — for control of Yahoo's board. Sources told the New York Times Ballmer views a proxy fight — which could cost as much $30 million — as as a cheap alternative to raising the bid. Even a dollar increase over Microsoft's original $31 per share would cost the company $1.4 billion. That's a cost too high, considering Yahoo's entire board — already considered fractured — comes up for reelection this year, and nominations are being taken through March 14.

Yang to plug talent leakage with cash

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 10:04AM

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang doesn't want to see another Bradley Horowitz go. So, to stop key talent from heading out the door, Yahoo plans to stuff a few coat pockets with fat new retention packages, Kara Swisher reports. Along with more cash, these packages will include a change-in-control clause that bloats the severance pay a new owner would have to pay to lay off these employees.

Gates says Microsoft isn't haggling

Nicholas Carlson · 02/19/08 09:32AM

Microsoft hasn't upped its offer to buy Yahoo and isn't negotiating behind closed doors, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said. "We sent them a letter and said we think that's a fair offer. There's nothing that's gone on other than us stating that we think it's a fair offer," Gates told the AP. "They should take a hard look at it." Microsoft's offer continues to hover around $29 dollars a share, down from $31 — though anyone who wants $31 a share in cash can take the money and run.

Did Microsoft lie about top exec's departure?

Owen Thomas · 02/18/08 04:32PM

The departure of Brian Valentine, a 19-year Microsoft veteran before he left in 2006, has always been a bit of a puzzle. In August of that year, Microsoft management told his staff he was taking a new job within the company after shipping Windows Vista. A month later, he left for Amazon.com. Now, Amazon.com has cleared things up with a belated SEC filing: Microsoft lied to its employees. Here's the timetable:

Google more evil than the World Trade Center was

Nicholas Carlson · 02/18/08 03:40PM

Harper's Magazine has this to report: Google's motto may be "Don't be evil," but the profitmongers in fact are evil. Why? Google's plan to build a massive datacenter complex in Oregon "has triggered an arms race" that has lead Microsoft and Yahoo to build their own gargantuan server farms. These server farms, Harper's warns, will combine to draw more than "90 megawatts of electricity — more than the World Trade Center humming at peak power on a hot summer day." For this reason, Harper's opines, Google's "motto is perhaps due for an addendum: 'Lead others not into temptation.'" Oh, that's what happened with the WTC. I always wondered.

The 7-Eleven deal: Could Yahoo Japan buy Yahoo?

Owen Thomas · 02/18/08 03:20PM

In the Yahoo-Microsoft takeover battle, Yahoo's 40 percent stake in Yahoo Japan is treated as an afterthought: Spare goods to be sold off to boost shareholder returns. But Yahoo Japan, in its home country, is Google, eBay, and Yahoo rolled into one. It's worth $29 billion — more than Yahoo itself was worth before the Microsoft bid. Which raises the question: Why isn't Yahoo Japan the one buying Yahoo? Before you dismiss it, consider the precedents.

Yahoo board splinters in Yang versus Bostock battle

Nicholas Carlson · 02/15/08 09:47AM

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has lost control of the Yahoo board. New Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock and billionaire Ron Burkle now lead a majority contingent which worries CEO Jerry Yang has let his emotions override his duty to shareholders in the face of Microsoft's takeover attempt. Support for Yang's efforts to resist Microsoft has dwindled to just Softbank's Eric Hippeau and Activision CEO Robert Kotick, the New York Post reports.

Microsoft hires Sue Decker's gal pal

Owen Thomas · 02/14/08 05:40PM

The management of Yahoo, burdened by a culture of niceness, does not begin to understand what it means to be mean. Take Microsoft's hiring of Blackstone Group investment banker Jill Greenthal as an advisor. Greenthal, pictured here, is a respected dealmaker. But more importantly, she's best buds with Yahoo president Sue Decker, who worked with her at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Kara Swisher says that the two haven't spoken since Microsoft launched its $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo. Would Microsoft hire a banker just to rob Decker of a trusted friend's advice? Of course not, but it seems like a useful fringe benefit.