Newspaper reports Microsoft AOL continue talks: related news

Newspaper reports Microsoft, AOL continue talks

Executives from Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are trying to advance discussions on a possible combination that could give the software maker an alternative to a deal with Yahoo Inc., a newspaper reported Wednesday.

AOL Launches WalletPop.com; Upgrades AOL Money & Finance Features

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 15, 2008--AOL announced the launch of WalletPop, http://walletpop.com, a new personal finance site and a spin-off of AOL Money & Finance, http://money.aol.com. The new site will help consumers survive and thrive in today’s economy by focusing on all aspects of consumer and personal finance, while AOL Money & Finance will continue to focus on business and investing news, tools and analysis. AOL Money & Finance is one of the most visited finance sites, with more than 15.2 million unique visitors each month and more page views than any other financial site.

AOL In Talks With Microsoft to Merge Online Divisions, Says WSJ

Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft executives are reportedly meeting with their AOL counterparts to discuss combining the two companies' online divisions. No one from either side is willing to comment, nor has the structure of the supposed deal been worked out. The original unconfirmed report comes from the Wall Street Journal (password-protected). A few months ago there was talk about AOL teaming up with Yahoo, but that never materialized." The free excerpt at the WSJ link above seems to say about as much as this Bloomberg wire report which refers to it, and the above-linked story at The Standard; this Reuters story indicates that AOL is still courting or being courted by Yahoo!, too.

Microsoft's Annual Report Reveals OSS Mistakes

mjasay writes "Microsoft's most recent annual report suggests that the company is increasingly coming to grips with open source, yet also seems determined to perpetuate myths about open source that poorly serve it and its shareholders. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has suggested before that 'free software means no free soda' for Microsoft employees; but this is perhaps the first time that Microsoft has managed to enshrine its ignorance in a public document. In the annual report, Microsoft makes two primary false claims about open source: 1) Open source companies don't invest in research and development and instead largely free-ride on Microsoft's patents and copyrights; and 2) Open source projects don't innovate and instead mimic Microsoft's products.

Microsoft and Apache - What's the Angle?

A week ago, we discussed Microsoft's contribution to the Apache Foundation. Now, Bruce Perens has written an analysis "exploring the new relationship of Microsoft and the Apache project, how it works as an anti-Linux move on Microsoft's part, and what some of the Open Sourcers are going to do about having Microsoft as a rather untrustworthy partner." In particular, he notes: "...Microsoft can still influence how things go from here on. If they have to live with open source, the Apache project is Microsoft's preferred direction. Apache doesn't use the dreaded GPL and its enforced sharing of source-code. Instead, the Apache license is practically a no-strings gift, with a weak provision against patent lawsuits as its most relevant term. Microsoft can take Apache software and embrace and enhance, providing their own versions of the project's

AOL just a consolation prize for Microsoft in battle with Google

While AOL's Internet properties (think MapQuest) would give Microsoft a bit of a boost, overall, it's probably a bit too little too late. AOL doesn't give Microsoft a whole lot. Although the Yahoo merger would be messy, in the end, it would put Microsoft on better footing against Google--which is the main idea behind all this anyway, right?

Microsoft ending WinXP sales today

Today marks the last day Microsoft will sell Windows XP to retailers and major PC manufacturers. After today, MSFT will officially be moving forward with Windows Vista. But those of you who are die hard WinXP fans don't worry, Microsoft executives have already confirmed that the OS will still be available for those who want it. For instance, Dell will continue to offer Windows XP as an option, although you'll have to pay extra for it, while online retailers like Newegg will to continue to carry copies of the OS as well. Microsoft's move will really only affect those users who want a nice, shiny retail boxed copy of Windows XP, sales of the OEM version will continue.

AOL Launches New Personal Finance Site, Image GalleryBut The Brand Is Absent

imageDespite shifting focus to an ad-supported business and ad network years ago, AOL (NYSE: TWX) can’t seem to shake the image of being known as that dial-up ISP. So rather than continue to fight, AOL is finding that it might just be better to erase it, or at least downplay it somewhat. Case in point: two new channels, a personal finance site called WalletPop and a free professional images site, Pixcetera, debuted this morning—both without the AOL brand prominently featured on its site (scroll way down) or in the URL. That said, the sites do have the same look and feel of others and AOL’s main page features a link that does connect directly to WalletPop—but the link only says “Money� and doesn’t identify the site by name. As AOL continues its site rollout—the company is in the process of creating a new one aimed at younge

Some Developers Leaving Google For Microsoft

recoiledsnake writes "We have heard about lots of talented developers jumping ship from Microsoft to Google, but is the trend beginning to turn? Dare Obasanjo (a Microsoft employee) writes about a few high-profile people picking Microsoft over Google — either making the jump directly, or choosing Microsoft after receiving offers at both. Sergey Solyanik is back to Microsoft and he primarily gripes about the culture and lack of career development at Google. He writes, 'Everything is pretty much run by [engineering] — PMs and testers are conspicuously absent from the process. Google as an organization is not geared — culturally — to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications.' Danny Thorpe, who was the key architect of Google Gears, is back at Microsoft for his second stint working on developer technologies rel

Last Bytes: AOL, eBay, Apple, Google

Microsoft and Yahoo have intensified discussions with Time Warner about buying AOL. For Jerry Yang, an AOL tie-up may be his last hope to maintain control of Yahoo. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer may buy AOL just to spite Yang. [Reuters, Portfolio.com]

Yahoo! rejected Microsoft bid for search business, due to exclusivity clause

Microsoft dropped bid for all of Yahoo! on 8 June and launched a bid of USD 1 billion for Yahoo!'s search business and a share of future search advertising revenue. This proposal also included an USD billion investment in Yahoo! but required Yahoo! to commit to a 10-year exclusive arrangement, according to a letter sent to Yahoo! stockholders by CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock. The letter explains the reasons for Yahoo! to sign a four year non-exclusive deal with Google for online advertising services and to end the talks with Microsoft, as their search-only hybrid proposal may have been helpful to Microsoft. The board and its advisers also carefully studied the financial impact of Microsoft's proposal and concluded that it would have provided no meaningful improvement to the operating cash flow.

AOL Users Will Need to Pay $2 a Month For Phone Support

destinyland writes "8.7 million AOL subscribers face a new 20% fee increase next month — unless they agree to never call AOL's technical support lines. They'll have to use AOL chat for support or the online help "portal" unless their issue is a failed connection — and they're being enrolled in the program by default unless they opt out. Ominously, AOL used the exact same wording as when they quietly changed their terms of service to allow them to sell subscribers' home phone numbers to telemarketers. 'Your continued subscription to the AOL service constitutes your acceptance of this change.'"

Report: Microsoft in talks for a deal with AOL

Having been spurned by Yahoo, Microsoft is meeting with AOL to talk about the two companies combining

Senior Microsoft developer dumps Redmond to embrace open source

Mike Gunderloy spent over a decade consulting for Microsoft, helping to build the Access and Excel versions of Microsoft Office 97 and 2000, as well as SQL Server, C#, and ASP.Net. A series of Microsoft moves, most particularly its "patent land-grab," has pushed Gunderloy away from Microsoft to the point that he's now "100 percent Microsoft-free" and has embraced a variety of open-source projects and programming languages.

YAHOO SPURNS JOINT MICROSOFT-ICAHN BID TO REVAMP FIRM, ACQUIRE SEARCH BUSINESS

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Yahoo Inc. said late on Saturday that it rejected a restructuring proposal from Microsoft Corp. and the investor Carl Icahn, and the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet-services giant called on Microsoft to bid for the whole company. Yahoo said the Microsoft-Icahn plan, which it said would turn Yahoo's search business over to the Redmond, Wash., software giant and the rest over to the New York investor, was presented as a take-it-or-leave it proposition. "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo's stockholders in mind," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement. Yahoo said that while it rejected the restructuring, it offered two alternatives: "It repeated its offer to sell the entire company to Microsoft for at least" $33 a share, and it "offered to nego

Microsoft, Novell Continue Unlikely Windows-Linux Partnership

In November 2006, Redmond, WA-based Microsoft and Waltham, MA-based Novell surprised the software world by announcing that Microsoft would market Novell’s version of the Linux operating system to its own customers, and that the two companies would set up an “Interoperability Lab� in Cambridge, MA. Nearly two years later, the partnership is still in place, and today the old rivals—Microsoft nearly wiped out Novell in the early 1990s—said that they’re extending it to the tune of $100 million.

Microsoft To Put Office Online as Equipt for Consumers

Microsoft will put its Microsoft Office suite online as Microsoft Equipt, joining Windows Live Mail, Messenger, OneCare and Photo Gallery. A one-year subscription for three home computers will cost $69.99. The Microsoft Equipt license bars business use and the Equipt suite does not include Outlook, which is popular among small businesses.

Optus announces iPhone plan pricing

Dell to sell enterprise-wide Microsoft agreements in Australia US government sued over tracking mobile phones Victory predicted for Microsoft's Hyper-V Mozilla claims Guinness download record Flying cars will happen says British inventor Google open sources RatProxy security tool Canadian fiddler looks for quick payday via eBay Microsoft, Yahoo mull media partner options UN says money grows on trees Microsoft outlines Office subscription plan Boffins promise flexible laptops Microsoft seeks allies for new Yahoo move - reports More regulation for online retail arrives Intel gaining ground in 2008

Microsoft Opens Windows 7 Blog

Microsoft wants a discussion with customers and partners about Windows 7, its next-generation operating system. A new Microsoft Windows blog has been opened, and Microsoft plans two Windows events. Microsoft says it intends to listen to what the world has to say about Windows 7. An analyst said innovative features will also be needed.

Microsoft starts to talk: Engineering Windows 7 blog is live (Updated)

Microsoft has thus far been very tight-lipped on Windows 7; everything that we know about Vista's successor—which is very, very little—has been carefully disclosed to us by Microsoft. The software giant has already been heavily criticized for not having any public channels of communication open. Even Microsoft's own partners have complained that the company isn't telling them much, and they're the ones that really have to know the details so they can align their products accordingly. Anyway, it seems that the stance over at Microsoft is changing, but very slowly: the Engineering Windows 7 blog (E7 for short) is now live.

Microsoft, In Search Of Itself

Tags: PC, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Software, Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Microsoft Sponsors Apache Software Foundation

gbjbaanb writes "Ars Technica reports that Microsoft is to sponsor the Apache Foundation to the tune of $100k. From the article: 'I asked him if this could possibly be the beginning of a broader initiative by Microsoft to increase Apache compatibility with .NET web development technologies, but he says it's still too early to guess Microsoft's future plans for Apache participation. ... He doesn't anticipate a confrontational response from the developers working on individual Apache projects ... The response of the broader open source software community, however, is harder to predict.' (In related news, MS also intends to participate in the RubySpec project.)"

Critical vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services patched

Microsoft Security issued a patch today for a critical vulnerability affecting all supported editions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2003, and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The hole is in Microsoft XML Core Services and could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a malicious Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

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