Microsoft, Facebook Announce Patent Agreement

Microsoft Corp. and Facebook announced today a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will assign to Facebook the right to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it recently agreed to acquire from AOL Inc. Facebook has agreed to purchase this portion for $550 million in cash.

In the initial AOL auction, Microsoft secured the ability to own or assign approximately 925 U.S. patents and patent applications plus a license to AOL’s remaining patent portfolio, which contains approximately 300 additional patents that were not for sale.

As a result of today’s agreement, Facebook will obtain ownership of approximately 650 AOL patents and patent applications, plus a license to the AOL patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own.

Upon closing of this transaction with Facebook, Microsoft will retain ownership of approximately 275 AOL patents and applications; a license to the approximately 650 AOL patents and applications that will now be owned by Facebook; and a license to approximately 300 patents that AOL did not sell in its auction.

via newsroom.fb.com

The race to gather patents continue, some for defense and some for offense.

On Investing: The future isn’t grim, and it belongs to young entrepreneurs

A thing I have noticed about today’s youth: They have no illusion that any company will offer them much in the way of economic security. They have a firm grasp on the idea that they are a business of one — even if they work for IBM or Uncle Sam. They are their own team, a singular brand, their own idea factory.

via washingtonpost.com

So true, I see this so often these days and I am not even in the valley or anywhere around the entreprenuers Barry writes about. And what is driving the youth - the web, the social platforms, the mobile platforms, the ubiquitous connectivity, the ability to showcase their ideas anywhere they want to, the way they want to and to whom they want to, ability to do commerce sitting at their homes/colleges/cafe's. Ideas were always there but there was no platform for these ideas to reach the right audience.

Microsoft going strong on Enterprise sales

Microsoft Reports Record Third-Quarter Revenue

Microsoft Corp. today announced quarterly revenue of $17.41 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2012, a 6% increase from the prior year period. Operating income was $6.37 billion, up 12% from the prior year period.

Net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.11 billion and $0.60 per share, compared with $5.23 billion and $0.61 per share, respectively, in the prior year period.

Highlights:

• Office 2010 and Dynamics continues to do great, Microsoft Business Division grew 9% y-on-y.
• Windows 7 rebounded little and showed 4% increase y-on-y. 40% enterprise desktops running Windows 7 now.
• Server & Tools business grew 14% y-on-y, driven by double-digit revenue growth in SQL Server and more than 20% growth in System Center revenue.
• Laggards included Enterprises & Devices Division - 16% decrease in revenues due to lower XBOX sales due tosoft gaming console market and Online Services Division - Revenue of $707 million which grew 6% y-on-y but had losses of 479 Million. Only silver lining in OSD revenues came from operating loss improvement of approximately $300 million.

AT&T Stores Are Almost Completely Out of Lumia 900 Stock

Both Nokia and Microsoft need the Lumia 900 to succeed. Windows Phone is struggling. So is the once-top handset maker. But while they and AT&T has been pushing the Lumia 900 hard it looks like the carrier just doesn't have enough to go around.

Nokia won't talk hard Lumia 900 sales numbers until its earnings call this summer at the earliest. But after hearing rampant reports of depleted stock of the new phone, we decided to do some sniffing around. We talked to salespeople at 36 AT&T stores in major malls around the country, and where we learned that generally, they had sold out within the first couple of days after the phone's launch. The phone is "doing pretty fabulous" one Illinois rep said. They're "selling like crazy," an Ohio employee boasted. A Philadelphia location was the sole spot that said it hadn't sold out at all.

via gizmodo.com

Good problem to have??

Master Chief Returns With Worldwide Launch of 'Halo 4' Beginning Nov. 6

The countdown has begun for the landmark entertainment event millions of fans worldwide have been anticipating for more than four years. “Halo 4,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the iconic franchise that has shaped entertainment history, will launch worldwide on Nov. 6, 2012.

“Halo 4” marks the return of legendary hero Master Chief, named by Fast Company as “one of the most popular characters in gaming history,”1 and aims to set a new standard for blockbuster interactive entertainment with the launch. Set four years after the events in “Halo 3,” Master Chief returns to confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Developed by 343 Industries, “Halo 4” marks a new beginning for the landmark entertainment franchise that has sold more than 40 million games worldwide and inspired multiple New York Times best-selling novels, live-action shorts, comic books, action figures and apparel.

via microsoft.com

Bliss.

Microsoft's master plan to beat Apple and Google

Microsoft is staging a comeback -- and, unlikely as this sounds, it's one Apple and Google should be worried about.

Microsoft's recipe relies on three key ingredients: Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. The secret sauce, which features a dash of Bing and SkyDrive, is still simmering. But Microsoft is nothing if not patient, and it thinks its trio of core consumer products will blend together in the next few years to form a major new ecosystem.

via money.cnn.com

Not sure of the comeback part yet. Windows 8 is still to be released, you have to join the race to be able to win it. With Windows Phone, Microsoft is in the Mobile race and Nokia is providing the thrust. Innovations like Kinect is what taking XBOX to a leader position. I am yet to come across a concrete strategy by Microsoft across these three devices. For e.g. will my WP apps work as it is on XBOX or Windows 8? What I agree on is the fact that with these three platforms, Microsoft has the tools to be successful in the Consumer space. In a winner takes all market, it will be intresting to see Microsoft's journey towards increasing share in Tablet and Mobile space. Time will tell.

Even Well-Meaning Gatekeepers Slow Innovation

I am emphasizing the self-service nature of these platforms because it’s important for a reason I think is somewhat non-obvious: even well-meaning gatekeepers slow innovation,” writes Bezos. “When a platform is self-service, even the improbable ideas can get tried, because there’s no expert gatekeeper ready to say ‘that will never work!’ And guess what – many of those improbable ideas do work, and society is the beneficiary of that diversity.

via wired.com

Instagram’s User Count Now At 40 Million, Saw 10 Million New Users In Last 10 Days

Instagram received a fair amount of press over the last week. First, 10 days ago, the app launched on Android. Then news of Facebook buying the tiny startup for $1 billion was everywhere from the Drudge Report to The Daily Show. The attention resulted in explosive growth. Since the launch of its Android app, Instagram’s user base grew from 30 to 40 million. That’s over 1,000,000 new users a day.

via techcrunch.com

Democracy is good thing. Instagram opening up on Andorid proves the point.

In PC Numbers, HP Investors See A Light At the End of the Tunnel

HP shares surged by more than 7 percent, or $1.69, today to $25.10, mainly on a positive report on the state of its personal computer business from the market research firms Gartner and IDC.

As I noted yesterday, HP saw its share of the global market grow fractionally, according to the reckoning of Gartner, at the expense of Dell, Acer and Asus, while China-based rival Lenovo grew even more. IDC saw similar results, and both research houses were surprised to see the overall market grow in the first quarter of the year where a market decline had been expected.

via allthingsd.com

PC Market sees a slight rebound, not sure what's driving the uptick.

India hires Microsoft in 'largest cloud deployment ever'

Microsoft has been hired by India’s body for education development as its largest cloud customer to date, as part of efforts to modernise the country’s schools and reduce IT costs.

Microsoft’s Live@edu service will be rolled out to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. It will be available to more than 7 million students, and half a million faculty members.

via zdnet.com

This is huge. Seven Million students and half a million Faculty members and all this under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), a body which is responsible for accreditation of all the colleges in India, colleges which are swelling and bursting at the seams with thousands of new students and courses getting added every year. Microsoft wins this against stiff competition from IBM and Google.

Fanfare for the Comma Man

Is it safe to talk about punctuation again? Eight years ago, Lynne Truss’s best-selling “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” took, in the words of her subtitle, a “Zero Tolerance Approach” to the subject. Although Truss’s focus on errors drew the ire, if not the fire, of grammarians, linguists and other “descriptivists,” her book was, for the most part, harmless and legitimate. Still, it overlooked a lot. Maybe more than any other element of writing, punctuation combines rules with issues of sound, preference and personal style. And as Truss didn’t adequately acknowledge, even the rules change over time.

via opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

U.S. Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple, Macmillan, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette & HarperCollins

The U.S. sued Apple Inc. (AAPL), Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster inNew York district court, claiming the publishers colluded to fix eBook prices.

CBS Corp. (CBS)’s Simon & Schuster, Lagardère SCA’s Hachette Book Group and News Corp. (NWSA)’s HarperCollins settled their suits today, two people familiar with the cases said.

Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books, according to people familiar with the matter. They will argue that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry, which was dominated by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)

via bloomberg.com

Misrepresenting the independence of the relationship between the colluding parties is also Collusion. We will know if these parties colluded in due time.

Why Microsoft spent $1 billion on AOL's patents

While it's possible that other companies might have bid against Microsoft, the data from MDB suggests that Microsoft was willing to pay as much as it did because the AOL patents had more strategic importance to it. So Microsoft both wanted the patents, and it wanted to make sure rivals didn't get them.

"Microsoft probably believed that Google would have been interested," said Erin-Michael Gill, MDB's managing director and chief intellectual property officer.

Moreover, the average age of the patents in the AOL portfolio, which also includes some patents that AOL did not sell to Microsoft, is about four years old. That suggests that many of the patents have yet to be licensed to other companies, something that makes that intellectual property more valuable.

"The amount Microsoft paid implies that there are very few encumbrances on the portfolio," Gill said.

That increases the value of the portfolio, giving Microsoft more opportunities to license the patents in order to recoup its investment--and Microsoft has an active, aggressive licensing program. Of course, it also gives Microsoft another weapon in its patent battles over Google's Android and Chrome operating systems. The company has already struck deals with several device makers -- including HTC and LG -- to license its technology to continue to use Android and Chrome and avoid litigation. And its sued companies that haven't agreed to licensing terms, including Barnes & Noble and Motorola.

The new AOL deal should give Microsoft more munitions for their intellectual property battles with Google.

"There is a whole host of products that Microsoft will want to increase their leverage over Google with," Gill said. "This should allow Microsoft to operate as something of a gatekeeper."

via news.cnet.com

Another take on why Microsoft bought AOL patents. It made sense.

AOL and Microsoft in $1Billion Patent deal

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) (the "Company") today announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement to sell over 800 of its patents and their related patent applications to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) ("Microsoft") and to grant Microsoft a non-exclusive license to its retained patent portfolio for aggregate proceeds of $1.056 billion in cash.

Following the sale, AOL will continue to hold a significant patent portfolio of over 300 patents and patent applications spanning core and strategic technologies, including advertising, search, content generation/management, social networking, mapping, multimedia/streaming, and security among others. AOL also received a license to the patents being sold to Microsoft.

via corp.aol.com

And just what is Microsoft gaining.

From Analyzing Microsoft’s Patent Play With AOL.

Envision IP, a firm that analyzed AOL’s patent portfolio late last month, says the bulk of the patents Microsoft is buying or licensing cover things like online communications and messaging. This could include technology for email, instant messaging and “in-network” messaging, such as how on Facebook you can send messages to other Facebook users, and those messages look like emails but aren’t, says Maulin Shah, the firm’s managing director.

Other AOL patents cover technology around the Web browser interfaces and search results, such as ranking search listings, Shah says. The company also has patents around the Internet telephony technology known as VOIP, or voice over Internet protocol, as well as video conferencing and other video-calling functions.

Facebook acquires Instagram

spanI'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

via facebook.com

One of the best acquisitions in the recent times and the decision to keep Instagram as an independent service makes it even better.

To Fill Out Its App Store, Microsoft Wields Its Checkbook

hundreds of thousands of apps that run on Apple and Android devices will not work on phones like the Lumia 900 that use Microsoft’s Windows Phone software. And many developers are reluctant to funnel time and money into an app for what is still a small and unproved market. So Microsoft has come up with incentives, like plying developers with free phones and the promise of prime spots in its app store and in Windows Phone advertising.

via nytimes.com

I bet less than 5% apps will fall into this category.

Creepy Girl-Stalking App Girls Around Me Has Been Yanked From The App Store

Girls Around Me — the creepy geo-location app that allowed you to stalk and find personal information about girls in your neighborhood without their knowledge — has been pulled from the iOS App Store.

It’s unknown at this point whether Apple yanked the controversial app in direct response to the controversy sparked by our original report on the app, or whether the developers pulled it because Foursquare had revoked Girls Around Me’s API access — again in response to our report — effectively making the app useless.

As of writing, Apple has not commented on the fate of Girls Around me. However, Foursquare came out against the app in a public statement, saying that the app had violated the terms of its API policies, and that they would no longer support it.

via cultofmac.com

Question should be - How did it get approved in the first place?

Amazon’s Appstore Generates More Revenue Per Daily User Than Google Play | TechCrunch

According to new data released today by mobile analytics firm Flurry, Amazon’s Appstore for Android is generating more revenue per daily user than the Google Android Market, which was recently rebranded as the Google Play store. That shouldn’t be surprising, given that Amazon vets apps for quality, runs promotions to entice users to return daily, and perhaps most importantly, is able to leverage its established user base of Amazon account holders who already have credit card information on file – perfect for one-click checkouts.

via techcrunch.com

Do Good and Cast into Amazon.

Apple, Foxconn revamp China work conditions

In a landmark development for the way Western companies do business in China, Apple Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to work with partner Foxconn to tackle wage and working condition violations at the factories that produce its popular products.

Foxconn - which makes Apple devices from the iPhone to the iPad - will hire tens of thousands of new workers, clamp down on illegal overtime, improve safety protocols and upgrade worker housing and other amenities.

The moves come in response to one of the largest investigations ever conducted of a U.S. company's operations abroad. Apple had agreed to the probe by the independent Fair Labor Association in response to a crescendo of criticism that its products were built on the backs of mistreated Chinese workers.

via reuters.com

There is a problem or not?

Burnout is caused by resentment

Marissa Mayer from Google spoke at the 92nd St. Y last night. One thing she touched on is employee burnout.

Her theory is that burnout is caused by resentment.

When people have to make sacrifices for work - like missing their child’s soccer game - they end up being resentful. She is proactive with her employees to make sure they don’t experience lots of resentment-causing activities. If being at tuesday night dinner with friends is the one thing you need to keep you happy, you should be there every week.

via iamnotaprogrammer.com

True. Somehow this reminded me of Joel Spolsky's book, "User Interface Design for Programmers" where he states - Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy.

The more you feel that you can control your environment, and that the things you do are actually working, the happier you are. When you find yourself frustrated, angry, and upset, it's probably because of something that happened that you could not control: even something small. The space bar on your keyboard is not working well. When you type, some of the words are stuck together. This gets frustrating, because you are pressing the space bar and nothing is happening. The key to your front door doesn't work very well. When you try to turn it, it sticks. Another tiny frustration. These things add up; these are the things that make us unhappy on a day-to-day basis. Even though they seem too petty to dwell on (I mean, there are people starving in Africa, for heaven's sake, I can't get upset about space bars), nonetheless they change our moods.

Not being in control of your environment makes you unhappy and resent the situation, more loss of control, more resentment and result is burnout. "Jugaad" - an Indian term meaning a creative idea, or a quick workaround to get through commercial, logistic or law issues works for the time being but too much of Jugaad leads to frustration and ultimately burnout.