Editor’s Note: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)
Next CEO’s Biggest Job: Fixing Microsoft’s Culture (The Wall Street Journal)
Months before Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled its iPad in January 2010, the tech world was buzzing about mockups of a tablet computer from Microsoft Corp. Created by an inventor of the company’s Xbox videogame machine, the Courier folded like a book and let users sketch and jot ideas on a touchscreen. That spring, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told employees at Courier’s Seattle laboratory that he was pulling the plug on the device.
Ballmer resignation unlikely to quell unease over Microsoft (FT)
Last week’s pre-emptive announcement by Steve Ballmer that he is to step down as chief executive of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) looks set to defuse some of the growing shareholder unhappiness about leadership at the software company, according to analysts. But it is unlikely to guarantee either the company or its chief executive a smoother ride. With Wall Street still unsure about the company’s direction and an activist investor pushing behind the scenes for more shareholder-friendly action, Microsoft faces a critical period over the next two months that could determine the fate of the new “services and devices” strategy that Mr Ballmer has tried to set for it.
Microsoft Board in Needle-in-Haystack Hunt for New CEO (Bloomberg)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s next chief executive officer will need the expertise and strategic vision that can help the biggest software maker confront a broad range of threats that Steve Ballmer, for all his expertise as a salesman, was never able to repel. Microsoft requires a product person like Marissa Mayer, who oversaw some of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s most-popular services including its home page, and was brought in to turn around Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), according to analysts and executive recruiters.
In Microsoft, Young Tech Sees Itself (CNBC)
As a young executive at Microsoft, Steven A. Ballmer helped topple older, slower-moving technology giants like the Digital Equipment Corporation, Wang and Novell. These days, it is Microsoft’s turn to fend off the upstarts as it struggles to compete in a computing world that is increasingly mobile and based in a ”cloud” of Internet-connected computers to which many customers gain access at the same time. It’s all part of the inevitable life cycle for technology companies.
RPT-Microsoft, Motorola set for second round of trial over patents (REUTERS)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) takes on Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Motorola Mobility unit this week in the second of two landmark trials between the companies that delve into hot disputes over the patents behind smartphone and Internet technology. The jury trial, starting Monday in federal court in Seattle, is set to resolve whether Motorola breached its contract with Microsoft to license on reasonable terms its so-called standard essential patents, covering wireless and video technology used in the Xbox game console.
More gains for Microsoft? (CNBC)
