Microsoft

Microsoft on Tuesday said it's set to release near-final versions of its key database server and other business-oriented software.

The company announced a "release candidate" of SQL Server 2008, along with test versions of security and identity management software, at its TechEd conference in Orlando, Fla.

Also on tap for later this month is a release candidate of Microsoft Application Virtualization, version 4.5, the company said. Microsoft also announced a server-virtualization validation program, which lets software developers test and validate their code running against Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of the operating system.

Microsoft Senior … Read more

Updated June 10 at 6:23 a.m. PDT with information from the brief.

Yahoo shareholders filed a statement late Monday seeking a trial date to invalidate the company's controversial employee severance plan prior Yahoo's annual shareholder meeting.

Those involved with the suit, filed in the Delaware Chancery Court, are hoping to invalidate the severance package, which, in turn, could assist major Yahoo investor Carl Icahn in his proxy battle to unseat Yahoo's current board of directors.

The first part of the employee severance package is triggered if there is a change of control, which would occur … Read more

Yahoo has virtually all the antitrust information it needs to know to make a decision on whether to proceed with a Google ad outsourcing deal that would pass muster with antitrust regulators, but it has only begun to explore that issue for a scaled-down Microsoft agreement, according to sources.

As a result, any deal that calls for Yahoo to turn over its search business to Microsoft is not on the immediate horizon, noted one source familiar with the talks.

Two weeks ago, Yahoo began to internally explore the antitrust ramifications of a scaled-back Microsoft deal, leaving the Internet search pioneer … Read more

Yahoo announced on Monday that it filed its definitive proxy statement, which now allows the Internet search pioneer to begin its road show with investors.

Yahoo, which is embroiled in a proxy fight with major shareholder Carl Icahn, is seeking to persuade its investors to re-elect its current board at the August 1 shareholder meeting.

Icahn, meanwhile, is seeking to get his dissident slate of directors elected and is using his group to pressure Yahoo and Microsoft to undergo a full buyout of the Internet search pioneer. Currently, the two parties are in talks for Microsoft to buy or partner with Yahoo for a portion of its search business. … Read more

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn kicked off the week with scathing questions for Yahoo, as his proxy fight heats up with roughly eight weeks to go before Yahoo's annual shareholders meeting.

In the latest salvo, Icahn presses Yahoo to answer his previous questions as to why the Internet search pioneer opted to install an expensive employee severance plan as a retention method, while neglecting to mention to its workers that Microsoft had earmarked $1.5 billion to retain employees, should it have been successful in acquiring Yahoo.

Here is Icahn's letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock:

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview published Sunday that the company has no plans to put up a Zune phone to compete with iPhone.

On the eve of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, where a new iPhone is rumored to be unveiled, the man who is charge of developing Xbox, Zune, and Windows Mobile began his question-and-answer session with the paper by touting the success of Windows Mobile.

"We will outsell the iPhone," he told the newspaper."We will outsell the BlackBerry."

"We … Read more

When I texted Sam Ramji to let him know about Sandcastle, and he quickly texted back that he would look into it, I figured that a) it hadn't yet hit anyone's radar at Microsoft and b) that he'd fix it.

Fix it, he did. As Mary Jo Foley notes, it was "doubtful [that] Microsoft was willing to risk the wrath of the OSI over a documentation compiler." I'd go one step further. Once alerted to Sandcastle's violation and to the importance thereof, it was doubtful that Microsoft's Sam Ramji and Co. would be interested in the code, however important/non-important it might be.

Sam gets open source. He's not always supported in this understanding by the larger Microsoft entity, but Sam gets it. His apology to the OSI is direct, concise, and appropriate:

This is unacceptable and represents a violation of Microsoft's Open Source policy. I take it extremely seriously.

I have directed the project to be unpublished from Codeplex immediately, including removal of the project's use of the Ms-PL. If the team chooses to publish the source code and follow Microsoft policy, then the project may be re-published in the future. If not, we will remove all references to Sandcastle from Codeplex.… Read more

To Roy Bostock Chairman of the board, Yahoo

Dear Roy,

Wondering whether you've ever read anything by Pierre Ambroise Fran?ois Choderlos de Laclos (that's a mouthful!). He was the French author of the 18th century epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. After watching all the note-swapping between you and Carl Icahn, I have to confess that you guys sure have the hang of it--even though the "Dear Roy, Dear Carl" salutations are awfully phony. No doubt you two would prefer shotguns at 20 paces. Meanwhile, if you can break away from your writing desk, I'd … Read more

Microsoft is practicing the "Golden Rule" when it comes to Yahoo and shareholder activist Carl Icahn.

The software giant, which initially encountered a frustrating round of "radio silence" from Yahoo after announcing its unsolicited buyout bid for the Internet search pioneer back in February, is not treating Icahn in a similar manner, as the activist investor uses his proxy fight to push the two companies together for a merger.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently shed a little light on the software giant's relationship with Icahn in an interview with the Washington Post. In that interview, … Read more