Steve Ballmer

Ballmer ordered to testify in 'Vista capable' case

Paul Mah — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:52:19 -0500

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been ordered by a federal judge to testify in a class action lawsuit against Microsoft. Ballmer was cited for his unique personal knowledge of facts surrounding the case, which we covered earlier this year. Article

Microsoft unilateral downgrade of 'Vista Capable' specs upsets HP

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:24:56 -0500

Like an extended soap opera, additional information related to the ongoing "Vista Capable" class action lawsuit against Microsoft has surfaced. It appears that Microsoft made a commitment to HP back in 2005 that it will not loosen the requirements for its "Vista Capable" logo program. Even as HP put in significant investments to upgrade to newer PC graphics technology (in order to meet the specifications), internal miscommunication resulted in Microsoft agreeing to Intel's request to lower it. This is precisely what HP feared would happen. It was confirmed by an email from Jim Allchin, Microsoft's co-president of platform products and services, who angrily emailed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the mismanagement. Ballmer rejects all responsibility however, pointing to another Microsoft executive instead. Expect this lawsuit to dog Microsoft for years, even as it prepares to release Windows 7--the upgrade to Windows Vista.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from the Inquirer

A Google-enabled government

Judi Hasson — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:27:13 -0500

President-elect Barack Obama has promised change, and one area where that may happen is in the use of technology in government. One key concept Obama has talked about is creating a Google-enabled government. This involves improving the transparency and access to the vast amounts of government data, and doing so by moving the data into universally accessible formats.

Many federal agencies have put data online but use different formats. The new administration may move this process along by hiring the nation's first chief technology officer to manage and coordinate the government's IT effort--a massive undertaking. There's lot of speculation on who will lead this effort. The media rumor mill has cited many big names in technology including Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy. Among the people on the transition team helping Obama select a CTO is Sonal Shah, head of global development initiatives at Google, and Julius Genachowski, co-founder of LaunchBox Digital, a Washington-based firm that helps start-up businesses.

For more on this transformation:
- check out this Computerworld.com article

Yahoo left hanging after Google pulls out of ad deal

Paul Mah — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:42:49 -0500

Regulatory objections have resulted in Google pulling out of a search advertising partnership that would have allowed it to monetize some aspects of Yahoo's search advertising program. Yahoo's stock rose briefly on speculation of a possible Microsoft deal; only to have Steve Ballmer dismiss it, saying that Microsoft is "not interested." Article

Amazon delivers Windows-powered cloud

Paul Mah — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:10:49 -0400

Amazon has finally launched a Windows beta of its Elastic Compute Cloud service. The move to launch Windows in its cloud comes barely a week ahead of Microsoft's Professional Developers' Conference in Los Angeles.

At this moment, Amazon is offering the option of running either 32- or 64-bit versions of Windows, with data stored in the 64-bit edition of Microsoft's SQL Server database. Pricing will start at $0.125 per hour. There don't seem to be many details regarding the service level agreement at this moment, beyond promising a 99.95 percent uptime or a 10 percent "service credit." Hopefully, Amazon's cloud will not suffer another embarrassing round of closely-spaced outages. One can't help but wonder if there is any relation to the "Windows Cloud" operating system mentioned by Steve Ballmer himself earlier this month.

To read more about Amazon's Windows-powered cloud:
- check out this article at The Register

Microsoft reviews its hiring plans

Judi Hasson — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:14:40 -0400

The shaky economy may even be affecting Microsoft, which is now reviewing its hiring plans for the coming year. The world's largest software company, however, denied reports it had instituted a company-wide hiring freeze.

"Given the current economic environment, we are taking the prudent step of reviewing our hiring plans and will make some adjustments as appropriate," said Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos. The company, which employs more than 91,000 people around the world, said it plans to grow and add thousands of new jobs this year while acknowledging the need to be careful.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said last week that the company is not immune to the global financial crisis and that he expects the software giant will see a decline in business.

For more on Microsoft's plans:
- check out this Reuters article

Ballmer: Intel rubbish at making chips

Paul Mah — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:17:33 -0400

The Inquirer recently published a piece in which Microsoft's Steve Ballmer was reported to have made some decidedly uncomplimentary remarks about Intel at an event in London-- an event that, coincidentally or not so coincidentally, has Intel as one of its sponsors. Interviewed on stage at the "Technologies to Change your Business" event, Ballmer said that while Intel can double the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months, the microprocessor company has no way of using the traditional transistors to "make the chips run faster." What I found interesting is that Ballmer went on to lament Intel's shift from making faster processors to more processors, referring to Intel's extensive work on multi-core technology. The downside here, according to Ballmer, would be that this one change alone "mandates and necessitates ongoing OS innovation."

To read more about what Steve Ballmer said:
- check out this The Inquirer article

Microsoft will deal with new Yahoo board

Paul Mah — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:06:33 -0400

Microsoft confirmed on Monday that it would be interested in resuming talks with Yahoo to either buy its search business, or the entire company, on the assumption that there is a new board of directors for it to work with. This comes as an implicit endorsement of billionaire investor Carl Icahn's attempts to push a new board lineup through.

If anyone else still has doubts as to where Microsoft thinks the fault lies, the company remarked on the earlier impasse in talks with its current board, saying in a statement, "Despite working since January 31 of this year...we have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them." Apparently, CEO Steve Ballmer also was worried that even had an agreement been reached a couple of months earlier, the current board could mismanage the company in the midst of gaining regulatory approval. Such a scenario would have jeopardized the value of Microsoft's investment.

To read up more on Microsoft and Yahoo:
- check out this Network World article

Microsoft and Yahoo: What now?

Mehan Jayasuriya — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:31:45 -0400

It sure feels like the Microsoft-Yahoo negotiations have been going on forever, but judging by the looks of it, it seems like there isn't going to be a Microhoo to speak of after all. Sure, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has been making some interesting allusions in the press following the tumble that his company's stock price has experienced ("We were totally willing to do a transaction, and they walked away," he told the Financial Times) but despite his urgings that he was open to a deal, it seems that there won't be one. So, what now? According to Ars Technica, a deal of another sort. "Having failed to deliver Jerry Yang's proverbial head on a silver platter and bringing Yahoo under his domain, [Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer] needs to show his own shareholders that the whole mating dance wasn't just wasted time and money while management could have been doing something better with its talents and assets," Ars writes. "So I would be surprise--no, shocked--if Microsoft didn't announce another rather large acquisition very soon."

For more on the post deal shakeout:
- see this Ars Technica article
- also check out this article in FierceFinance

Windows XP to get stay of execution?

Mehan Jayasuriya — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:06:52 -0400

The clock is ticking for retail, enterprise and OEM sales of Windows XP but if the rumor mill--and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer--are to be believed, the plucky OS might just be sticking around a bit longer. Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows recently published an email that was supposedly penned by a Dell representative, which con tainted the following tidbit: "Please be aware that Dell will continue to offer XP Pro preloaded through 2012. We will ship XP Professional on Dell Optiplex, Latitude and Precision machines with a free upgrade path to Windows Vista." Hmm. Meanwhile, Ballmer was recently heard to remark that "If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter," whatever that means. Could Windows XP get a last-minute stay of execution from Microsoft? The company's customers sure seem to hope so.

For more on Windows XP:
- see this CNET article
- and this article from the SuperSite for Windows