Microsoft earnings report

Microsoft reports quarterly earnings this afternoon, after the market closes. See this Bloomberg News story to get a sense for Wall Street analysts' expectations.

Update: Here's Microsoft's earnings release.

Gates on 'Morning Edition'

NPR's Morning Edition today aired a portion of an interview with Bill Gates in which he talked about the company change of position on Washington state's gay-rights legislation. Click here for a page where you can access the audio, and see our story this morning on the broader subject of the dilemma sometimes faced by companies when they decide to take official stands on divisive social issues. The broader NPR interview, on a range of topics, is scheduled to air tomorrow.

Mossberg on Tiger, XP

Lots of reviews compare Apple's new Mac OS X Tiger operating system to what Microsoft has shown and talked about for Longhorn, the next version of Windows. In his review this morning, the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg makes the Longhorn comparison but also sizes up Tiger against Windows XP.

It might not be the most fair comparison, given that XP debuted in 2001, but it is the Microsoft operating system that will compete against the new Mac OS in the market for the next 18 months, until Longhorn debuts. Writes Mossberg: "Overall, Tiger is the best and most advanced personal computer operating system on the market, despite a few drawbacks. It leaves Windows XP in the dust."

Meanwhile, David Pogue of the New York Times reviews Tiger here. The page also includes a link to a video of Pogue showing Tiger. Among other things, in the review, Pogue pokes a little fun at Apple for claiming more than 200 new features in the new operating system: "Apple's Tiger Web site lists over 200 new features. Not all of them are, ahem, likely to set off a mass exodus to the Macintosh. Will anyone upgrade to Tiger because, for example, 'you can easily find any glyph by typing its Unicode ID'?"

On his Internet Nexus site, Paul Thurrott has been making a similar point with his running "Tiger Feature of the Day" feature.

Ballmer's 'charm offensive'

The New York Times describes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's visit Tuesday with EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes:

Mr. Ballmer requested the meeting on short notice, and Ms. Kroes invited him to her office on the 10th floor of the curved glass and steel Berlaymont Building, headquarters of the European Commission, where they talked for around an hour Tuesday night, one of these people [close to Microsoft] said. "It was a courtesy visit; he had never met her before."

Officially, Microsoft described the meeting as "part of an ongoing dialogue between the company and the European Commission." To people at the commission, there was no question Mr. Ballmer's hastily arranged visit was a charm offensive -- and one that fell flat.

Latest EU twist

Associated Press: "A meeting between Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and the European Union's antitrust chief failed to settle the main outstanding differences over the EU's landmark case against the software giant, the EU said Wednesday."

Microsoft and Ralph Reed

See this story by the P-I's Charles Pope today for the latest twist in the debate over Microsoft's position on Washington state's gay-rights legislation: Microsoft defends ties to Ralph Reed. Here's the original Americablog post on the subject. Also see coverage by CNet News.com.

Dave Barry on SP2

This was one of the comments by humor columnist Dave Barry during his live online narrative of the TV show "24": "The terrorists have to reconfigure the trigger mechanism to make it compatible. This will take an hour, so apparently Windows Service Pack 2 is involved." (Via Microsoft Monitor.)

WinHEC photo gallery

Here's a collection of photos from the first day of the Windows Hardware Engineering conference in Seattle. The first is a handout image from Microsoft; the rest I took myself at various points during the day. Click on the images for larger versions, and see the corresponding captions below.

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1) The ultraportable Tablet PC prototype shown by Gates during his Monday morning keynote. The screen is 7 inches wide.

2) Internet Explorer as seen in the preview version of Longhorn, the next Windows version, demonstrated during Gates' keynote.

3) A slide showing the projected Windows release timeline.

4) A keyboard prototype with an embedded auxiliary display.

5) Another auxiliary display prototype, this one embedded in the casing of a laptop.

6) The desktop of the Longhorn preview version shown during Gates' keynote.

7) A prototype Windows Media Center PC remote control from Philips with an embedded screen for navigating and controlling a music collection and other media.

8) A teen-oriented PC from Digital Lifestyles Group Inc., which has recently run into financial trouble.

WinHEC news roundup

See our story this morning for highlights from the opening day of WinHEC, including a response from Jim Allchin, Windows group vice president, to Apple's claim that Microsoft is cribbing key parts of Longhorn from Mac OS X Tiger.

Here's a roundup of some of the additional coverage from other sites and publications:

• AP: Microsoft previews next Windows OS

• Reuters: Microsoft previews Windows, aims to bridge gap

• Microsoft Watch: Microsoft to pit Metro against PostScript?

• Joe Wilcox offers his take on the Metro vs. Adobe subject in this post on the Microsoft Monitor weblog.

• See this Microsoft page for the official transcript and video of Bill Gates' keynote.

• Neowin's WinHEC weblog.

• Here's CNet News.com's WinHEC news page.

• Paul Thurrott's Day One WinHEC blog post, with links to additional coverage, is here.

• Microsoft's Matt Goyer points out the Media Center news from the event: Microsoft says computer makers have sold more than 2 million Windows Media Center PCs.

• IDG News Service: Microsoft delays most of its NGSCB security plan.

Microsoft's reality return

As noted in this morning's Insider column, another Microsoft employee is appearing on a reality television show, although this one is faring better thus far than the previous one did. Microsoft employee Howard Lo is among 10 men competing for a 10-day European vacation with supermodel Denise Keller on "Eye for a Guy 2", now airing in Singapore. After the first episode, Keller ranked Lo first among the contestants. Lo is fourth from the left in the photo at right. (Click the image for a larger version. Photo Credit: MediaCorp TV Singapore Channel 5's Eye For A Guy 2.)

Gates at U2 concert

		Scott Eklund / P-I

Bill Gates is closely aligned with Bono on some key world social causes, but apparently the Microsoft chairman is a fan of Bono's music, as well. U2's current tour hit Seattle last night, and Gates was among the concertgoers, as this picture shows. Maybe a special black-and-red U2 edition of Windows would be in order? For more on the actual concert, see Gene Stout's review from today's paper, which includes a link to more of Scott Eklund's photos.

UPDATE: Reed Stevenson of Reuters spoke with Gates today and asked about the concert, and it turns out that Bono is staying at Gates' house, and the two hung out after last night's concert. See the Reuters story: When in Seattle, Bono bunks with Bill Gates. The best line is the last:

Asked if their friendship would entice him to buy one of Microsoft rival Apple Computer Inc.'s black-and-red U2 edition iPods, Gates said: "Absolutely not."

More on gay rights issue

The debate over Microsoft's position on gay-rights legislation in Washington state continued over the weekend, as Chief Executive Steve Ballmer issued an e-mail message to employees explaining the company's position.

P-I columnist Robert Jamieson weighs in on the issue this morning: "Theirs was a business decision. Faced with offending right-wing conservatives who could boycott en masse or gays and lesbians in Washington state who were far too meek as the bill came under fire in Olympia, Microsoft punted. ... That's my take, despite what company execs are scrambling to say now."

Remaking Windows Mobile

A story in the New York Times this morning profiles Microsoft's Ya-Qin Zhang and discusses his work on the next version of the company's Windows Mobile software.

Microsoft HR chief leaving

As reported in the newspaper this morning, Microsoft's human resources chief, Ken DiPietro, is leaving the company for reasons that haven't been publicly disclosed. For more background on DiPietro, see our September 2003 profile.

Microsoft and gay rights

A gay-rights bill that sparked a Microsoft-related controversy failed by one vote yesterday in the Washington Legislature. See coverage from the P-I this morning. As noted in that story, The Stranger alternative weekly in Seattle reported in a cover story this week that Microsoft withdrew its support for the anti-discrimination bill after an evangelical minister in Redmond threatened to organize a national boycott of the company's products.

The New York Times reported further on the issue this morning: Microsoft comes under fire for reversal on gay rights bill.

Microsoft says its decision to change its position on the bill to neutral was made long before the meeting, as it tried to narrow the range of issues it would focus on during the current state legislative session. Microsoft spokeswoman Tami Begasse said the decision was made long before meeting with the pastor and was "not influenced at all by external factors." She added that Microsoft was one of the first companies to offer benefits to same-sex domestic partners and include sexual orientation in its corporate non-discrimination policy.

Judging by the reaction, not everyone is buying the company's explanation of its change of position. For example, here's an AmericaBlog commentary on the issue.

Report: Tabs in IE via MSN

Neowin reports that MSN is working on a next-generation version of its MSN Toolbar that would, among other things, put a tabbed-browsing feature into Internet Explorer. See the Neowin post for more information and a screenshot.

Microsoft's 'current funk'

Commenting on Lenn Pryor's decision to leave the company, noted here yesterday, Microsoft program manager Dare Obasanjo echoes some of the concerns to which Pryor alluded in his farewell post. See Obasanjo's post for the full context, including his positive comments about his experience on the MSN team. However, he writes that "something should be done about the company's current funk and it definitely should involve some executive heads rolling." He concludes, "I hope it doesn't take the stock hitting $10 before some action is taken."

More HD initiatives

Microsoft's Xbox team isn't the only part of the company focusing on the trend toward high-definition video. This story on the Publish news site looks at some of the company's moves at this week's National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.

Gates: Greatest American?

Bill Gates is one of 100 people nominated for consideration in the Discovery Channel's upcoming "Greatest American" series, in which viewers will vote on which person is worthy of that title. (Clearly the open-source community wasn't a major factor in the nominating process.) The image at right is one of the posters the channel is distributing to promote the series, which starts in June. (Click for a larger version.) The lines are "Walt Disney: Changed the world with a mouse," and "Bill Gates: Changed the world with a mouse."

Before deciding whether to vote for Gates, you might want to consider his track record as a forecaster of future technology trends. Forbes recently published an interesting feature that looked at some of Gates' predictions in his 1995 book, "The Road Ahead," and compared them with reality today.

One of the predictions focused on the music business: Explained Gates in the book: "You the consumer won't need compact discs, tapes, or any other kinds of physical apparatus. The music will be stored as bits of information on a server on the [information] highway." Comments Forbes: "So why did he let old rival Apple essentially create this business?"

Update: A PR person for the series noticed Randy's comment, below, and e-mailed me to clarify that the nominations were actually submitted by the public, not determined by the Discovery Channel, so Gates' inclusion in the top 100 shouldn't be seen as a gesture by the channel. She said about 500,000 people submitted nominations. (As Nathan Weinberg notes, Steve Jobs is also among the top 100 nominees.)

California antitrust ruling

Its dismissal by a federal judge yesterday doesn't spell the end of an overcharging suit filed against Microsoft by a group of California cities and counties. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz said the plaintiffs could file an amended complaint relating to a shorter period of time -- four years, instead of 15. For all the details -- possibly more than you want to know -- click here to download a PDF of the judge's ruling.

Ch. 9 founder leaving

Lenn Pryor, founder of Microsoft's Channel 9 video weblog and forum, a.k.a. Robert Scoble's boss, has left his post as the company's director of platform evangelism to join Skype Technologies in the United Kingdom. Pryor explains his decision in this post on his weblog. (For background on Pryor and Channel 9, see this story from the newspaper last year.)

Allchin's world tour

OK, it wasn't a world tour, bit it did seem like Jim Allchin was everywhere last week. The Microsoft group vice president, who oversees Windows and related areas, went to California and met with a series of industry publications to talk about Longhorn, the next version of Windows. He also had dinner with a group of webloggers in San Francisco.

Here's some of the resulting coverage. If you see a worthwhile article or post that I've missed, feel free to post it in the comments or let me know via e-mail:

• Computerworld Q&A: Part One, Part Two

• Thomas Hawk: My Dinner with Microsoft's Jim Allchin.

• CNet News.com: An early peek at Longhorn

• The related Slashdot thread, and Hawk's Slashdot follow-up.

• Evan Williams: Dinner with Jim Allchin.

• PC Magazine: Microsoft Reveals Longhorn Details

• eWeek: Microsoft: Why Longhorn Matters

• CRN: Microsoft's Allchin Touts x64, Longhorn Plus related Q&A.

• InformationWeek: Microsoft: Longhorn Is Still Compelling

Adobe's Macromedia deal

Adobe Systems' plan to acquire Macromedia, announced this morning, raises interesting questions about the combined companies' competitive position against Microsoft. The deal would join the companies behind the technologies Flash and PDF, as well as programs Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver, among others.

Here's what Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen had to say on the subject of Microsoft during this morning's conference call about the acquisition:

Historically, both Macromedia and Adobe have been focused on the mission that we’ve articulated as helping people and organizations communicate better. Really what that meant is information that needs to be more compelling, more interactive, richer, impactful, reliable, more secure. And that has not been a strong suit for Microsoft. Clearly it’s an area that it looks like, based on what they tried to do with InfoPath, what they say they’re trying to do with Longhorn, their code name for their future Windows operating system, is similar to what we together have been doing and will continue to do. Clearly we are focused not only on the Windows platform but we do cover both Windows, Macintosh, Linux and many, many, many non-PC devices. So it’s hard to really say what Microsoft will do going forward, but they are a $40 billion software company and we will always keep an eye out for them.

ZDNet explores the Microsoft angle in this story: Adobe and Macromedia: Making Microsoft sweat? Additional coverage: Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Reuters, New York Times, CNet News.com, and MarketWatch.

Update: Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research weighs in on the deal's implications for Microsoft in this post on the Microsoft Monitor weblog.

'Start Something' ads

Microsoft's new Windows XP advertising campaign will last 15 months, as reported in our story this morning. That would lead up to the expected launch of the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, late next year.

But Scott Lennard, the Windows advertising director overseeing the "Start Something" campaign, said in an interview last week that the company could ultimately apply a similar theme to Longhorn, as well: "This is about the Windows experience, and the ability to explore your passions and interests won't stop with Longhorn -- we hope it will only get better. ... We want to have a campaign out there that's really true to Windows and will extend to whatever version of Windows you're talking about. It was a consideration for this campaign."

The picture above is one of the initial print advertisements in the campaign. (Click for a larger image.)

Apple's Longhorn preview

As mentioned in this morning's Microsoft Notebook, some Apple executives were in downtown Seattle on Friday, demonstrating the upcoming Mac OS X Tiger to technology reporters in the region. Apple, of course, likes to point out that Tiger includes many features that won't be available on Windows until future releases of the Microsoft operating system. Talking with Apple's Ken Bereskin, I explained that my main job at the newspaper is to write about Microsoft and related subjects. He smiled and said he understood why I was meeting with Apple: "You want to get a year ahead on your writing."

Update: CNet News.com's Ina Fried has an interesting story on the similarities between Tiger and Longhorn.

A Tablet PC for eBooks?

On the subject of digital books, Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch reports that people inside the company have been circulating a prototype of a hybrid Tablet PC/eBook device that would measure about 6 inches by 8 inches, according to her sources. Among other pieces of evidence, the story notes that Bill Gates referred to the basic concept during his February interview with ABC's Peter Jennings. See the full story on the Microsoft Watch weblog.

The audiobook divide

The Washington Post today examines the roadblock facing iPod owners who want to use audio download services offered by the Fairfax County, Va., library system and others, including the King County Library System: The services the libraries are using work only with Microsoft's Windows Media format, which means you can't play the audio books on the Apple device.

Fairfax library spokeswoman Lois Kirkpatrick told the Post that she "was taken aback by the vehemence with which iPod users reacted."

Officials from one of the services, NetLibrary, put the onus on Apple. They suggested Kirkpatrick inform iPod users that "Apple could, if they wanted, make the iPod with the ability to recognize Windows Media files ... but they have chosen not to do so for the time being. We regret this and hope the situation will change," according to the story.

EU status report

New York Times: "A year and a month after the European Union's landmark antitrust ruling against Microsoft, the software company has still not carried out either of the resulting orders, and this week the two sides argued over when a progress report might be forthcoming."

Report: More Xbox details

GamesIndustry.biz: "British sources have confirmed that the next generation Xbox is indeed called Xbox 360, that the logo is a simple, round nexus, and that the console itself has a concave design -- and a platinum white finish." The story itself has more details. (Via InsideMicrosoft and ArsTechnica.)

iPod's expanding 'halo'

Apple Computer released its quarterly results today, reporting that it shipped 5.3 million iPods in the quarter, a 558 percent increase over the same quarter the previous year. Meanwhile, the company reported 1.07 million Mac units shipped, a 43 percent increase compared with the same quarter last year.

What do the new stats say about the notion of an iPod halo effect, where sales of the popular music player fuel interest in Apple computers? At first glance, they don't appear to debunk it. The 43 percent increase in Mac units shipped is a sizable improvement over the 26 percent year-over-year increase in Mac shipments reported in the previous quarter.

For a visual impression, here are two charts, with today's numbers added to the earlier numbers reported in the chart that ran with our previous story on the subject. (*Note that these charts reference calendar-year quarters. Q1, for example, translates into Q2 of Apple's fiscal year, the quarter reported today.)

Additional coverage of Apple's results: Bloomberg News, MarketWatch, Associated Press, CNet News.com, and Reuters.

Firefox status report

Nielsen NetRatings reports a 237 percent increase in visitors to the Firefox Web site (PDF), a sign of the browser's growing popularity over that time period. The document also includes the March data for top Web brands, based on visitors, with Microsoft and MSN in second and third place, respectively, behind Yahoo! and ahead of Google. (Those statistics aren't to be confused with the separate list of top search destinations, which Google typically leads. Nielsen NetRatings hasn't yet released that ranking for March.)

IBM, MSFT and dinosaurs

BusinessWeek's Jay Greene writes in the magazine's current issue about the competition between Microsoft and IBM in the market for collaboration software. An excerpt:

While customers are kicking the tires, Microsoft and IBM are kicking each other. Gates dismisses IBM as a serious competitor since so many of its desktop programs, such as the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, are afterthoughts in today's market. "It's hard for a company that has been out of it for so long and had the various failures they've had to wake up and say, 'We care about information workers."' he says. To [IBM's Steve] Mills, it is Microsoft that is stuck in the past. "Their world is the world of e-mail, not the world of collaboration," he says.

Also see Greene's accompanying online interview with Bill Gates, in which the Microsoft chairman addresses subjects including the not-entirely-well-received Microsoft Office "Dinosaur" upgrade campaign. Says Gates: "We've done a series of ads with these guys with these dinosaur heads on saying, 'Hey, we've got Office 97. What's wrong with us? We're so inefficient. Jeez.' So that's a fairly helpful message to let people know they should get the latest and greatest."

The Mini-Microsoft blogger weighs in here.

Microsoft Mac BU on Tiger

Apple today announced that the next version of the Mac operating system, OS X Tiger, will be available April 29. Here's a statement released today by Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit, which makes Office for Mac and other programs:

With Tiger availability just announced, we wanted to provide an update on the work that the Mac BU has been doing with Apple to ensure Office 2004 for Mac support of the latest OS technologies. For example, upon installation of the new OS, Spotlight will be able to index Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. Support for additional features such as sync services will be enabled by a future update.

Additionally, Microsoft is collaborating with Apple to identify potential issues when running VPC 7.0.1 on Tiger and will conduct final testing upon Tiger’s availability. Microsoft will release a free update within the next two to three months to address any issues. The update will be available for download from www.microsoft.com/mac.

Microsoft strives to ensure that Mac BU products run seamlessly on each new Apple OS and take advantage of new technology that will enhance the overall user experience. A large part of the team’s success in achieving this goal can be attributed to the strong and productive partnership with Apple.

Assessing 'Napster to Go'

Ed Bott: "At the end of March, I canceled Napster To Go. Although I still believe the business model is sound, the implementation is too flawed to tolerate."

MSN hires Yahoo scientist

Microsoft says it has hired Gary William Flake, former head of Yahoo's research lab, to work as part of the MSN division. Flake joined Yahoo with its acquisition of Overture Services, the Yahoo unit from which Microsoft licenses the paid-search technology that it uses in conjunction with the MSN Search site, at least for the time being.

The company says Flake is the first person from outside Microsoft to be brought in as a distinguished engineer. In noting the news, Search Engine Watch points to its earlier interview with him.

Next Xbox for $299?

Following up on the MTV/Xbox news, Goldman Sachs predicts in a research note today that the next-generation Xbox could be released as early as October or November at a retail price of "perhaps about $249-$299."

David Becker of CNet News.com points out that the prediction is a departure from other analysts who "have been predicting Microsoft might try to push it up to $400."

All told, Goldman Sachs analysts say they expect Microsoft to ship about 3 million units of the next Xbox in the fourth quarter of this year, while continuing to ship the current Xbox console, to address the lower end of the market, even after releasing the new console. The analysts write that it would "seem imprudent" for the company to discontinue the current Xbox "given that Xbox 2 would probably not be available in sufficient quantities to meet demand for the seasonally strong December quarter." They note that their conversations with the company suggest it is, in fact, "unlikely" that Microsoft will stop shipping the current Xbox after releasing the new one.

Meanwhile, Xbox Live's Major Nelson is literally counting down the seconds until the program airs.

MTV debut for next Xbox

All of us expecting the next-generation Xbox to debut at the E3 video-game convention were slightly off the mark, as it turns out. Microsoft this morning announced plans to unveil the new console several days in advance of E3, on May 12, during a half-hour show on MTV.

Gateway antitrust deal

Microsoft will pay computer maker Gateway $150 million over four years to settle antitrust claims arising from Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact in the company's antitrust case. See coverage by the Associated Press and CNet News.com. Gateway describes the deal in this SEC filing, promising to file the actual text of the agreement a few months from now. Microsoft outlines the financial impact in this statement.

The Microsoft statement announcing the deal doesn't get into the specifics of the findings that gave rise to the Gateway claims. To jog your memory, here are some of the Gateway-related excerpts from the judge's November 1999 findings:

An aspect of Microsoft's pricing behavior that, while not tending to prove monopoly power, is consistent with it is the fact that the firm charges different OEMs different prices for Windows, depending on the degree to which the individual OEMs comply with Microsoft's wishes. Among the five largest OEMs, Gateway and IBM, which in various ways have resisted Microsoft's efforts to enlist them in its efforts to preserve the applications barrier to entry, pay higher prices than Compaq, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, which have pursued less contentious relationships with Microsoft. ...

Microsoft's technical personnel implemented Allchin's "Windows integration" strategy in two ways. First, they did not provide users with the ability to uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 98. The omission of a browser removal function was particularly conspicuous given that Windows 98 did give users the ability to uninstall numerous features other than Internet Explorer — features that Microsoft also held out as being integrated into Windows 98. Microsoft took this action despite specific requests from Gateway that Microsoft provide a way to uninstall Internet Explorer 4.0 from Windows 98. ...

In February 1997 a Microsoft account representative told his counterpart at Gateway that Gateway's use of Navigator on its own corporate network was a serious issue at Microsoft. He added that Microsoft would not do any co-marketing and sales campaigns with Gateway if the firm appeared to be anything but pro-Microsoft. If Gateway would replace Navigator with Internet Explorer, Microsoft would compensate Gateway for its investment in Netscape's product. If Gateway refused, Microsoft might be compelled to audit Gateway's internal use of Microsoft products. Gateway was separately told by Microsoft representatives that its decision to ship Navigator with its PCs could affect its business relationship with Microsoft. Despite the pressure from Microsoft, Gateway refused to switch its internal use to Internet Explorer or to stop shipping Navigator with its PCs. Although Microsoft did not implement its more specific threats, Gateway has consistently paid higher prices for Windows than its competitors. Microsoft's actions not only corroborate the evidence of its interest in suppressing the usage of Navigator, they also demonstrate its ability to threaten recalcitrant customers without losing their business.

MSN and ... iTunes?

As noted in today's coverage of Microsoft's MSN Messenger 7.0 launch, the latest version of the instant-messaging program lets people automatically display to others the name of the song playing at that moment on their computer. In a twist, however, the feature works not only with Microsoft's Windows Media Player but also with Apple's rival iTunes music player.

But that's where the accommodation ends. People who see a good song from a friend's playlist can click on the title to go buy it, but the instant-messaging service takes them to the MSN Music service -- not to the iTunes Music Store.

Explained MSN Vice President Blake Irving: "If you think about developing around scenarios for us, iTunes is software that's very popular, iPods are everywhere, so for us it just made sense to stream iTunes to show what somebody is listening to. We recognize that a lot of people are using iTunes. We certainly want them to use the MSN Music store. But we know that people are using that iTunes player, so that scenario is very important to us."

CFO-less for now

John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer, officially left the position March 31, according to this regulatory filing by the company yesterday. Connors in January announced plans to leave, to join the Ignition Partners venture capital firm, but it looked at the time as if he might stay on until his replacement was named. The company says that process is ongoing. Coverage: CNet News.com, TheStreet.com, and MarketWatch.

The EU's antitrust allies

Associated Press: "Five leading technology companies are supporting European Union regulators in their legal battle with Microsoft Corp., a lawyer for the group said Wednesday. ... International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp., Red Hat Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Nokia Corp. have applied to intervene against Microsoft in its court appeal of last year's EU antitrust ruling."

Meanwhile, the Financial Times sums up the extraordinary nature of Microsoft's current European situation: "A new version of Microsoft's flagship Windows operating system will soon hit stores across the European Union. But there will be little advertising or promotion to support the launch. Indeed, Microsoft will probably be hoping the new product will prove a complete flop."

'Napster to Go' results

Apparently a poorly received Super Bowl ad doesn't always translate into poor sales. Online music service Napster today announced that its overall subscriber base grew by more than 53 percent in the quarter ended March 31, reaching about 410,000 subscribers. The company didn't give a specific breakdown, but it attributed the growth in part to the "Napster to Go" portable music subscription service, which makes use of Microsoft's digital rights management technology.

Listing Microsoft fixes

Today's Microsoft trend: top 10 lists.

One of the papers Bill Gates reportedly read during his most recent "think week" was "10 Crazy Ideas to Shake Up Microsoft." The anonymous Mini Microsoft blogger weighs in on that subject and discloses the items on the list.

Meanwhile, the winCustomize site offers its own wish list for the next Windows version, "10 Features Longhorn Needs." (Link via Neowin). Among the items: a new display system, smoother multitasking, better networking, better security, and an end to "needless bundling."

Taking on Microsoft

Cleveland Scene has an in-depth look at the story of David Zamos, the 21-year-old college student who found himself in a legal battle with Microsoft over his resale of two pieces of packaged software. The story's conclusion:

Zamos says he'll still use the company's software. He has no choice. "I have to, since they practically own the universe." As he stares at his Hotmail account ... he laughs. "Today, I just realized -- Microsoft owns Hotmail!"

(Thanks, Roger, for the link.)

Fishing for phishers

Would you trust your personal information to this site? (Click for larger version.) This was one of the many phishing sites that prompted the filing of 117 "John Doe" lawsuits by Microsoft yesterday. The company hopes to identify the unnamed phishers through the legal process.

The sites essentially mimicked the Microsoft, MSN and Hotmail appearances perfectly. As Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos said in this morning's story, "If you didn't know, you'd think it was from us." In fact, one of the causes of action cited by Microsoft in the suits against the phishers was trademark infringement.

Groove deal challenged

A former Groove Networks employee is suing in an effort block the company's acquisition by Microsoft, saying that the deal doesn't adequately compensate some employee stockholders, Bloomberg News is reporting today. See summaries by CNet News.com and the Boston Business Journal.

Among other things, according to Bloomberg, court papers reveal the previously undisclosed value of the acquisition: $120 million.

Microsoft's statement on the suit: "Microsoft is not named in this action. Until the acquisition is complete, we remain two companies. Microsoft and Groove remain committed to our shared vision for providing software and services that help individuals collaborate naturally and easily, both within and beyond organization boundaries. We look forward to adding Groove technologies to the line-up of Microsoft Office system servers, applications and services following the close of the acquisition. "

Groove's statement: "The Microsoft acquisition of Groove Networks, announced on March 10th 2005, has been approved by all of the company's principal investors, with the exception of Michael Matthews, a former Groove Networks executive. The company's principal investors other than Mr. Matthews continue to support the transaction. Mr. Matthews' attempt to block the acquisition of Groove Networks by Microsoft by way of a temporary restraining order was denied this afternoon in Delaware Chancery Court by Chancellor William B. Chandler III. Groove Networks and Microsoft are proceeding toward closing of the transaction according to the terms of the merger agreement."