Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft Corp’
Microsoft to Unveil Pink Mobile Phones
Software giant Microsoft Corp is planning to unveil a new line of mobile phones early next week, with social-networking capabilities, says a media report.
Attributing to people familiar with the plan, ‘The Wall Street Journal’ reported Microsoft plans to introduce a new line of mobile phones next Monday.
The new devices, based on a Microsoft development project code-named ‘Pink’ would be sold by top mobile operator Verizon Wireless from later this month in the US, the report said.
Microsoft designed the software, online services and hardware for the Pink mobile phones, while Japan’s Sharp Corp is manufacturing the devices.
Bing May Replace Google on iPhone
Apple Inc is talking with Microsoft Corp about making it the default search engine provider for the iPhone, replacing Google Inc, BusinessWeek reported on Wednesday.
If Apple displaces Google from its preferred status on the smartphone, it would be perhaps the clearest sign of the growing tension between two Silicon Valley icons, which were considered allies in a common cause against Microsoft. Talks between Microsoft and Apple have been going on for weeks, the article said, citing two people familiar with the matter. Negotiations might not conclude quickly and might still fall apart, the article said. Microsoft and Google declined to comment. Apple was not immediately available for comment.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which debuted last year, is trying to wrest market share from Google, the leader in Internet search. Apple’s rivalry with Microsoft dates back years, though they work together in certain areas of the software market. In contrast, the Apple-Google rift is only emerging. The companies compete on a number of fronts, including operating systems and the fast-growing smartphone market. “Obviously with Google and Apple, they seem to be having some friction,” said ThinkEquity analyst Vijay Rakesh. Until recently, replacing Google with Bing would have been seen as unreasonable, but now such a move might be possible, said Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner. “While Microsoft and Google pose similar threats to Apple, Google’s budding success with Android and Chrome may represent more immediate dangers to Apple, which could push it into the arms of Microsoft,” Reiner wrote in a research note. Google and Apple have lived in friendly coexistence for years as each became leaders in their arenas. Google is the default search engine on Apple’s desktop and laptop computers. Their ties run deep. Google director Ann Mather was chief financial officer at animation company Pixar, while Apple founder Steve Jobs was CEO. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is an Apple board member and also a senior adviser to Google. But Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board in August, even as Google increased its presence in Apple’s markets. Google has been gaining strong support from handset makers and operators with its Android mobile operating system. Earlier this month, the search giant unveiled its Nexus One smartphone, which will compete with Apple’s iPhone.
Google recently agreed to buy mobile advertising company AdMob for $750 million, a company that Apple reportedly pursued. Apple bought AdMob competitor Quattro Wireless. Apple is working on ways to manage ads displayed on its mobile devices, a move that would challenge Google’s advertising business, the BusinessWeek article said. “Apple sees Android as a competitive platform driving competitive devices and it recognizes that Microsoft is desperate to gain search market share,” said Clayton Moran, an analyst at Benchmark. “Microsoft, I’m sure, will give Apple favorable economics so strategically and financially it could make good sense for Apple,” said Moran. The terms of Google’s deal with Apple are unknown, though browser toolbar deals in the PC world typically involve the search provider paying an upfront fee to the PC maker, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler. The search provider makes the money back when PC users click on search ads. IPhone searches using Google’s search bar appear to return more standard, unpaid results than paid search ads, suggesting that Google might lose money on the deal, Sandler said. For Microsoft to displace Google on the iPhone, “they’re going to have to be willing to lose more money than Google is losing,” Sandler said. Microsoft has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its money-losing online business as it tries to gain an edge in Internet-based advertising markets. “They’re both playing the same game,” Sandler said of Microsoft’s and Google’s mobile plans. “They both need to be there longer term, it’s just a question of how much do you have to give up today in order to chip away at that longer term vision.”
Microsoft Says No Plans to Buy Electronic Arts – EA Sports
Microsoft Corp has no plans to acquire Electronic Arts, a Microsoft executive said, shooting down unsubstantiated talk of a potential bid that triggered a spike in the video game publisher’s shares.
“We have no plans to acquire EA,” Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. “They remain a very important partner to us. No acquisitions.” Spencer declined to comment on whether it had held talks with Electronics Arts on such a move. Shares of Electronics Arts jumped more than 8 percent on Wednesday on unsubstantiated talk that Microsoft may want to buy the video game publisher. Last year, Electronic Arts, the publisher of popular titles like “Madden” football, unsuccessfully pursued a buyout of rival video game company Take Two Interactive Software. The Redwood City, California-based company, which has a market value of $6.5 billion, is frequently named by traders as a target for Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Inc.
Twitter Starts Generating Revenues from Online Advertising
Microblogging service Twitter introduced a new advertising program on Tuesday, in a first step to prove that its popularity among web users can translate into a self-sustaining business.
Known as “Promoted Tweets,” the ad program represents a much-anticipated move to address concerns about the revenue generating potential at Twitter and marks a key milestone on the road to an initial public offering, analysts said.
“Over the years, we’ve resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model because we wanted to optimize for value before profit,” wrote Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a post on the company’s blog on Tuesday.
Twitter, which lets users send short, 140-character text messages, or Tweets, to groups of “followers,” is among the new breed of popular Internet social networking services, along with Facebook and LinkedIn.
The company struck deals to provide its stream of Tweets to Google Inc and Microsoft Corp for inclusion in their Web search results last year, but Tuesday’s ad service represents the first fruits of an effort to build a business model around a recurring revenue stream.
Twitter said that it was currently testing Promoted Tweets with a handful of advertisers including Starbucks Corp, Best Buy Co, Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures and Virgin America. Under the program, a Twitter message, such as a promotional offer by Starbucks, will appear at the top of search results on Twitter for keywords that companies specifically purchase from Twitter.
As Twitter broadens the program to include more advertisers, spokesman Sean Garret said, keywords on Twitter’s search engine will be opened to competitive bidding by advertisers, similar to the way that Google’s lucrative paid search advertising program operates.
Twitter also said on its blog Tuesday that the company planned to eventually serve Promoted Tweets ads beyond its search feature, offering the ads directly within users’ message streams.
Josh Bernoff, a Forrester Research analyst, said Twitter needs to roll out the ad program more aggressively to advertisers if it hopes to turn its service into a money-making tool that can generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
“A handful of advertisers is not going to get them where they want to go,” said Bernoff. “Scale is where the success is.”
Twitter does not release information about its number of users, but comScore said the site had 22.3 million unique visitors in March in the United States, up roughly 140 percent year-over-year.
The ad program represents Twitter’s latest move to evolve from a hot start-up into a financially focused enterprise. The company has filled out its management team with executives with experience at Google and Walt Disney Co’s Pixar Animation Studios over the past year.
Twitter’s Garrett said that Twitter has no plans for an initial public offering, though as one of the Internet’s most popular Web companies, analysts believe Twitter could eventually make for an attractive IPO candidate.
Cowen and Company analyst Jim Friedland said Twitter needed to first show investors that the new ad model can deliver sustainable revenue.
“Even if this ad opportunity is incredibly successful, it’s still going to be a while before they have the track record to go public,” said Friedland. He pointed to Google, which unveiled its AdWords program several years before floating shares to the public in 2004.
Twitter is backed by investors including Benchmark Capital, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. In September, the company raised USD 100 million in a funding round that valued the company at USD 1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.