Editor’s Note: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Steve Ballmer heads for retirement, but where now for Microsoft? (The Guardian)
Steve Ballmer’s 13 years at the top of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) began as the new century dawned, but he leaves the world’s biggest software company at a crossroads where it must choose between the decades-old desktop market or the 21st-century world of mobiles and tablets. He hinted in the memo for his abrupt announcement on Friday, and in subsequent interviews, that the timing wasn’t his choice. “This is an emotional and difficult thing for me to do,” he told staff. Asked if it was a sudden decision in a later interview with ZDNet, he said: “I would say for me, yeah, I’ve thought about it for a long time, but the timing became more clear to me over the course of the last few months.”
Microsoft: The insiders who could be CEO (Reuters)
Microsoft Corporation has a stable of senior executives who could be contenders to succeed Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, even though outsiders have sparked the most discussion so far. After Ballmer’s surprise announcement on Friday that he would retire within a year, the board’s lead independent director John Thompson, who heads the search for the new CEO, said the planned transformation of the software giant into a fast-moving ‘devices and services’ company is still on track.
Microsoft Seen Raising Dividend Payouts (Bloomberg)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), within weeks of announcing plans by Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer to retire, will probably boost its dividend amid calls by an activist shareholder to return more cash to investors. ValueAct Holdings LP, which in April disclosed a stake of about $1.9 billion in the world’s largest software maker, has been seeking a return of more money, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Microsoft is poised to increase the quarterly dividend by 13 percent to 26 cents a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Developers Are Pissed That Microsoft Won’t Give Them Windows 8.1 Until Everyone Else Gets It (Tech Crunch)
Windows developers are not happy that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will not provide them with a copy of the newly “completed” Windows 8.1 RTM build. Instead, Microsoft has decided to make the developers who are part of TechNet and the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) wait like the rest of us until the middle of October.
Microsoft considering allowing users to resell digital games? (GameSpot)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) may be considering the introduction of a virtual marketplace that could allow users to buy and resell Xbox One digital purchases, according to a reportedly leaked survey by a user on the NeoGAF forums. While nothing has been confirmed–and the source, known mole, user “crazy buttocks on a train” (better known to the website’s community as CBOAT) acknowledges that the details are simply potential scenarios–if implemented, the concept could allow console owners to purchase and sell new and pre-owned digital games.
