Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it will buy computer game designer BigPark Inc for an undisclosed amount, as it pushes its strategy of producing exclusive games for its Xbox entertainment system.
Microsoft has already been working with Vancouver, Canada-based BigPark over the past year on a game for the Xbox, but has so far announced no details. More information is expected at the video game industry's annual E3 Expo in June.
BigPark, founded in 2007 by former executives of Electronic Arts Inc and Distinctive Software Inc, will become part of Microsoft Game Studios.
One of BigPark's co-founders, Don Mattrick, became senior vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business in July 2007.
[the article was originally published at http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5460AW20090507]
Showing posts with label steve ballmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label steve ballmer. Show all posts
Friday, May 8, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Microsoft Sales Fall Way to Short
Microsoft (MSFT) posted its first year-over-year sales decline in its 23 years as a public company Thursday, highlighting the tech sector's challenges as the recession drags on.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant missed Wall Street's third-quarter sales forecast by a wide margin, but met expectations on earnings, excluding one-time charges.
For the quarter that ended March 31, Microsoft earned 39 cents a share, excluding charges totaling 6 cents a share related to layoffs and money-losing investments. That was 17% below the same period last year, its second straight dip in year-over-year earnings per share.
Sales fell 6% to $13.65 billion, well below the $14.09 billion estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. It marked a historic low for the company. Since going public in 1986, Microsoft had never reported a year-to-year drop in quarterly sales.
"While market conditions remained weak during the quarter, I was pleased with the organization's ability to offset revenue pressures with the swift implementation of cost-savings initiatives," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said in a statement.
Though Microsoft did not provide specific financial guidance, Liddell said company officials "expect the weakness to continue through at least the next quarter."
Microsoft shares rose 4% in after-hours trading following the earnings release. During regular session trading, shares rose 0.75% to 18.92.
Investors were likely encouraged that the company preserved EPS through cost-cutting, says Jeff Gaggin, enterprise software analyst at Avian Securities.
Investors also may be enthused about the upcoming release of Windows 7, the company's next-generation PC operating system, Gaggin says. Microsoft said it remains on track to release Windows 7 in fiscal year 2010, which ends in June next year.
"Microsoft had a fairly weak first (calendar) quarter, but I don't think anyone was expecting anything differently," said Toan Tran, an analyst with Morningstar. "What investors are going to focus on now is the upcoming release of Windows 7 and how that might get the Windows business back on track."
The current version of Windows, called Vista, is a "damaged brand," Tran said. Critics have called the software slow, bloated and subject to annoying security alerts. Many PC users have avoided upgrading to Vista and continue to use its predecessor, Windows XP.
Microsoft felt the effects last quarter of the personal computer sales slowdown and corporate tech- spending cutbacks.
Analysts are forecasting year-over-year declines in sales and earnings per share for the next two quarters as well.
[the article was originally published at http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=474927]
The Redmond, Wash., software giant missed Wall Street's third-quarter sales forecast by a wide margin, but met expectations on earnings, excluding one-time charges.
For the quarter that ended March 31, Microsoft earned 39 cents a share, excluding charges totaling 6 cents a share related to layoffs and money-losing investments. That was 17% below the same period last year, its second straight dip in year-over-year earnings per share.
Sales fell 6% to $13.65 billion, well below the $14.09 billion estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. It marked a historic low for the company. Since going public in 1986, Microsoft had never reported a year-to-year drop in quarterly sales.
"While market conditions remained weak during the quarter, I was pleased with the organization's ability to offset revenue pressures with the swift implementation of cost-savings initiatives," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said in a statement.
Though Microsoft did not provide specific financial guidance, Liddell said company officials "expect the weakness to continue through at least the next quarter."
Microsoft shares rose 4% in after-hours trading following the earnings release. During regular session trading, shares rose 0.75% to 18.92.
Investors were likely encouraged that the company preserved EPS through cost-cutting, says Jeff Gaggin, enterprise software analyst at Avian Securities.
Investors also may be enthused about the upcoming release of Windows 7, the company's next-generation PC operating system, Gaggin says. Microsoft said it remains on track to release Windows 7 in fiscal year 2010, which ends in June next year.
"Microsoft had a fairly weak first (calendar) quarter, but I don't think anyone was expecting anything differently," said Toan Tran, an analyst with Morningstar. "What investors are going to focus on now is the upcoming release of Windows 7 and how that might get the Windows business back on track."
The current version of Windows, called Vista, is a "damaged brand," Tran said. Critics have called the software slow, bloated and subject to annoying security alerts. Many PC users have avoided upgrading to Vista and continue to use its predecessor, Windows XP.
Microsoft felt the effects last quarter of the personal computer sales slowdown and corporate tech- spending cutbacks.
Analysts are forecasting year-over-year declines in sales and earnings per share for the next two quarters as well.
[the article was originally published at http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=474927]
Sunday, May 11, 2008
"Plan C" - Microsofts New Strategy
I wonder how many of us remember the Eskimo ad on TV, where they travel all the way to reach a small town in India... I think it was brilliant and yes without batting an eyelid, I can recall it was for Live.com search on Hutch.
How many of us actually use Live.com for search or know that it belongs to Microsoft... Does anyone say " Yahoo it or Live (live.com) it and the first link is my website" but yes you find people saying "Google it". Infact, I remember a Pontiac TVC (in the US) which spoke about the Pontiac G6 and ended with a line "Don't take our word for it, Google 'Pontiac' to find out!”. This ad not only resulted in a high number of searches for Pontiac but also, kind of closed the loop between offline and online advertising. The reason I say this, is cos, increasingly the laptop is becoming a part of the couch, in different parts of the world. Not to forget the ad did become a case study too.
Coming back to the topic, what is it, that’s different with Google and Live.com (Microsoft search)...
Besides, the obvious volumes, it’s the way the product has been positioned and advertised. Did you know, Live search has a lot of different features e.g. its image search results keep growing as users scroll, thus you don't need to click to see the next page. Its Video search thumbnails start playing when the user does a mouse over them. Microsoft has also launched specialized searches for health and medical information and added some fun features like for those who are celebrity-obsessed.
After, Microsoft withdrew its bid of $47.5 billion for Yahoo, its been working on something called "Plan C" which according to many is nothing but re-building and re-positioning itself or as Bill Gates mentioned (In Japan, last Wednesday) in a statement "at this point Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy."
For those who came in late, "Plan A" was about going solo, which was beaten even after a lot of effort and advertising on billboards and ads in magazines. Also, not to forget it acquiring an online advertising company "aQuantive" for $6 billion.
"Plan B" was a desperate effort to acquire a chunk in the search pie, by bidding for Yahoo, which sadly fell through.
Just two days before Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer walked away from the Yahoo bid; he outlined to employees a four-part plan to "build the most interesting position in the world in online advertising, media, and the kind of social connected search and media experiences that go along with that."
First, Microsoft must do the basics - a huge search index, lots of storage in the cloud for users, very well.
It must innovate in "quick waves" that force Google to play catch-up.
It must "change the basic experiences" of communication and search.
And it must gain scale.
"We have a strategy and we have ideas in each one of those categories," Ballmer told the employees. The promise fell flat with analysts who had heard it so recently before.
I really wonder and I’m just too curious to see the bigger picture of what "Plan C" is all about. In one of the interesting articles I read, Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, also believes Microsoft should look beyond search and perhaps push ahead with plans to deploy software over the Internet and to get marketers to use a Microsoft platform for mobile and display advertising.
"The problem with a definition of success (is that) when this whole acquisition thing began, it was beating Google, and I think that's the wrong battle to fight," Li said. "I'd rather see them hit Google where it's weak."
I personally think, that it all comes down to the way a company positions its product and the way it markets it. Google, on the other hand seems to "just grow" and for those who remember seeing the Google Epic (a few years back) would recall and recognize its developments over these years.
How many of us actually use Live.com for search or know that it belongs to Microsoft... Does anyone say " Yahoo it or Live (live.com) it and the first link is my website" but yes you find people saying "Google it". Infact, I remember a Pontiac TVC (in the US) which spoke about the Pontiac G6 and ended with a line "Don't take our word for it, Google 'Pontiac' to find out!”. This ad not only resulted in a high number of searches for Pontiac but also, kind of closed the loop between offline and online advertising. The reason I say this, is cos, increasingly the laptop is becoming a part of the couch, in different parts of the world. Not to forget the ad did become a case study too.
Coming back to the topic, what is it, that’s different with Google and Live.com (Microsoft search)...
Besides, the obvious volumes, it’s the way the product has been positioned and advertised. Did you know, Live search has a lot of different features e.g. its image search results keep growing as users scroll, thus you don't need to click to see the next page. Its Video search thumbnails start playing when the user does a mouse over them. Microsoft has also launched specialized searches for health and medical information and added some fun features like for those who are celebrity-obsessed.
After, Microsoft withdrew its bid of $47.5 billion for Yahoo, its been working on something called "Plan C" which according to many is nothing but re-building and re-positioning itself or as Bill Gates mentioned (In Japan, last Wednesday) in a statement "at this point Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy."
For those who came in late, "Plan A" was about going solo, which was beaten even after a lot of effort and advertising on billboards and ads in magazines. Also, not to forget it acquiring an online advertising company "aQuantive" for $6 billion.
"Plan B" was a desperate effort to acquire a chunk in the search pie, by bidding for Yahoo, which sadly fell through.
Just two days before Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer walked away from the Yahoo bid; he outlined to employees a four-part plan to "build the most interesting position in the world in online advertising, media, and the kind of social connected search and media experiences that go along with that."
First, Microsoft must do the basics - a huge search index, lots of storage in the cloud for users, very well.
It must innovate in "quick waves" that force Google to play catch-up.
It must "change the basic experiences" of communication and search.
And it must gain scale.
"We have a strategy and we have ideas in each one of those categories," Ballmer told the employees. The promise fell flat with analysts who had heard it so recently before.
I really wonder and I’m just too curious to see the bigger picture of what "Plan C" is all about. In one of the interesting articles I read, Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, also believes Microsoft should look beyond search and perhaps push ahead with plans to deploy software over the Internet and to get marketers to use a Microsoft platform for mobile and display advertising.
"The problem with a definition of success (is that) when this whole acquisition thing began, it was beating Google, and I think that's the wrong battle to fight," Li said. "I'd rather see them hit Google where it's weak."
I personally think, that it all comes down to the way a company positions its product and the way it markets it. Google, on the other hand seems to "just grow" and for those who remember seeing the Google Epic (a few years back) would recall and recognize its developments over these years.
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