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All World Dominant Software Company Updates
01 June, 2006
Microsoft CEO Defends Company Investments
Email this Story May 31, 4:49 PM (ET)
By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told investors Wednesday to be patient as the world's largest software company spends time and money developing new products and entering new markets.

Echoing comments made earlier, Ballmer said Microsoft must invest heavily in the opportunities it sees. Even an established product like its flagship Windows operating system, which includes the Internet Explorer browser, "has to be watered periodically," Ballmer said.

"There's a lot of innovation still coming in Internet browsing and hardware," Ballmer told investors at a conference organized by Sanford C. Bernstein and Co. LLC. "If we don't keep Windows fresh, Windows will not continue to flourish."

Microsoft is currently working on new versions of its browser, Internet Explorer 7, and operating system, Windows Vista. The consumer version of Vista is expected to hit retail shelves in January.

Ballmer said the company also must enter new markets that "require big investments."

He cited the Xbox game console as one, adding that even if Microsoft incurred $4 billion in losses before starting to see gains, that's still cheaper than buying an existing game company like Nintendo Co. outright.

Other areas requiring investment, he said, include search and the delivery of software as a service over the Internet, rather than in more traditional ways such as a CD in a retail box. Both are areas in which rival Google Inc. (GOOG) excels.

Microsoft shares tumbled in April to a new 52-week low after the company said it planned to significantly beef up investments in many areas where it is not dominant. Analysts worried that while such investments may pay off in the long term, it could hurt more immediate financial results.

Ballmer said Wednesday the company must invest enough to be No. 1 in areas in which it is not the current leader.

"If you win, the returns come," he said. "If you are very successful, the business model works in almost all of these things."

Microsoft spent about a decade developing and fine-tuning Windows before starting to see payoffs, he said, and no investor should question that investment today.

Microsoft shares dropped 50 cents, or 2.2 percent, to close at $22.65 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.


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Microsoft Launches Security for Windows
Email this Story May 30, 10:47 PM (ET)
By ALLISON LINN

SEATTLE (AP) - Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks.

The move pits the world's largest software maker head-to-head with longtime business partners Symantec Corp. (SYMC), McAfee Inc. (MFE) and others.

Windows Live OneCare, which will protect up to three computers for $49.95 per year, marks the latest step in Microsoft's effort over the years to make its operating system less vulnerable to crippling Internet attacks.

Windows, which runs on the vast majority of personal computers, has been a near-constant target of worms, viruses and other attacks, hurting countless users and forcing Microsoft to invest heavily in patching vulnerabilities and improving flaws.

The official release of the OneCare product comes after months of public testing. Redmond-based Microsoft has previously said that its main focus for OneCare was the 70 percent of computer users who, according to Microsoft estimates, have no additional protection at all.

But in an interview last week, Ryan Hamlin, general manager for the OneCare product, said the company also hopes to snag existing Symantec and McAfee customers.

"We'd love for those customers to use our product, and encourage them to, but there's also 70 percent that don't use anybody," he said.

Microsoft is hoping to gain an edge against Symantec and others by also including tools in OneCare to make computers run more smoothly and help people back up data.

McAfee said Tuesday that it was preparing to release a new security service, code-named Falcon, this summer. A spokesman for Symantec, maker of the popular Norton products, said no one was available to comment on the OneCare competition.

Hamlin said he expects the product to be profitable for Microsoft.

He said the company doesn't have any current plans to bundle OneCare into the Windows operating system, as it has done with products such as its Internet browser and music and video player. But he said the company was looking at ways to distribute the product through computer makers or Internet service providers, as many competing security software makers have done.

The OneCare release also comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit Symantec filed against Microsoft over a separate matter.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, accuses Microsoft of misappropriating Symantec's intellectual property and breach of contract. The dispute is over is over a technology that allows operating systems to handle large amounts of data.

Hamlin said Microsoft believes it acted appropriately.

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On the Net:

http://onecare.live.com
---------------------------- Symantec Fixes Flaw in Antivirus Software
Email this Story May 30, 9:05 PM (ET)
By TED BRIDIS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Symantec Corp. (SYMC) has repaired a serious problem with versions of its leading antivirus software, which protects some of the world's largest corporations and U.S. government agencies. The flaw lets hackers steal sensitive data, delete files or implant malicious programs.

Symantec began providing a repairing patch for its software over the Memorial Day weekend, just days after researchers disclosed the problem. The speedy response - many software manufacturers take months to do similar repairs - underscored the seriousness of the threat, which affected the latest corporate versions of Symantec Antivirus.

The company said the patch is available using its LiveUpdate technology, which distributes the latest antivirus protections. The company said it has not detected efforts by hackers to exploit the antivirus flaw.

Symantec said its engineers have worked 24 hours a day on the problem since its discovery last week by eEye Digital Security Inc. of Aliso Viejo, Calif. "Symantec is a company used to responding rapidly," said Vince Weafer, senior director for Symantec's security response unit.

Weafer said consumer versions of Symantec's popular Norton Antivirus software - sold at retail outlets around the country - were not vulnerable to the flaw. Symantec's antivirus products are installed on more than 200 million computers.

eEye published a note about its discovery on its Web site last week but pledged not to reveal details publicly that would help hackers attack Internet users until after Symantec repaired its antivirus software.

An eEye executive, Marc Maiffret, said Tuesday the company will wait until patches are available for all language-editions of Symantec's antivirus products before disclosing further details, which he said could come as early as this week.

"I can't believe they were able to turn that around so fast, definitely a good job for them," Maiffret said.

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On the Net:

Symantec: http://www.symantec.com

eEye Digital Security: http://www.eeye.com/
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 Google Unlikely to Make Own Web Browser
Email this Story May 31, 7:25 PM (ET)
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
(AP) Konstatina Stoyanova, left, Ad Words coordinator and Alex Torres, product user support coordinator,...
Full Image

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday told industry analysts the online search engine leader is unlikely to create its own Web browser, even though the company remains worried about being slighted by the next version of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Internet Explorer.

Responding to a question during a conference call, Schmidt said Google sees little need to develop its own browser because most people seem satisfied with Explorer and rivals such as Firefox, Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL)'s Safari and Opera.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google already has a search toolbar installed in Firefox as part of its partnership with the Mozilla open source software project that introduced the browser in 2004.

"We would not build a browser just for the fun of building a browser," Schmidt said.

Later in the call, Schmidt reiterated Google's concerns about Microsoft programming the next version of its Internet Explorer to steer more traffic to its own Internet search engine.

Google informally complained to the U.S. Justice Department about Microsoft's plans, but regulators decided they didn't need to intervene. Schmidt said Google still hopes Microsoft will make it easier for Explorer users to set up other search engines in the browser.

The next version of Explorer will be included in Microsoft's Vista, a long-awaited upgrade of the Windows operating system due out next year.

"We want to make sure the use of the power of Windows is done in a correct and legally appropriate way," Schmidt said.

Google reigns as the dominant Internet search engine with a 43 percent share of the U.S. market through April, well ahead of Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) at 28 percent and Microsoft's MSN at 13 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Schmidt's comments occurred during a question-and-answer session that Google organized in an effort to improve its communication with Wall Street. Analysts and investors have complained about Google's cryptic ways since the company's initial public offering in August 2004 and now management is trying to change that perception without backing down from its policy against sharing its financial projections.

The presentation didn't seem to make much of an impression. Google's shares were up slightly when the conference call began, but then backtracked to close with a 12 cent decrease at $371.82 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock lost another 82 cents in late-session trade.

Google covered familiar territory Wednesday, telling analysts to expect major investments heavily in new computer equipment and offices to accommodate the company's growing audience and work force.

The company spent $345 million on capital expenditures during the first quarter, including $112 million on information technology assets and $41 million on land and buildings.

Chief Financial Officer George Reyes said Google's hiring spree will continue at its recent pace, which has been increasing the company's work force by 14 percent to 20 percent every three months. In the past year, Google nearly doubled its payroll to just under 6,800 employees through March.
Konstatina Stoyanova, left, Ad Words coordinator and Alex Torres, product user support coordinator, enjoy a relaxed working atmosphere in the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in Dublin, Monday, April 10, 2006. Dublin's new Docklands, where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks, offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration blackspot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast food to writing software code. In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the rapidly expanding European headquarters of Internet search-engine giant Google Inc. (AP Photo/John Cogill)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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 Docklands Emerges As 'Brain Gain' Capital
Email this Story May 31, 12:32 PM (ET)
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
(AP) Thomas Bering, Ad Sense Coordinator relaxes while working in a massage chair at the offices of...
Full Image

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - For decades, the mildewed brick and decay of Dublin's derelict Docklands were the last thing many Irish emigrants saw of their homeland before they boarded the ferry to Britain in search of work. These days, the place is being transformed into a land of rare opportunity - and a powerful magnet for ambitious people from around the world.

The new Docklands - where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks - offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration black spot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast food to writing software code.

In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the rapidly expanding European headquarters of Internet search-engine giant Google Inc. (GOOG)

"A lot of companies are moving out of Europe, but it's the opposite in Ireland. The companies that have located here, like Google and Yahoo and eBay and so many others, are very attractive. So the place is very young and very international. It's really quite magnificent," said Renate Myhrstad, a 26-year-old Norwegian who is Google's training manager in Dublin.

The unprecedented wave of immigration comes on the back of a friendly invasion of high-tech multinationals that largely picked Ireland, rather than continental Europe, because Ireland's 12.5 percent tax rate on corporate profits is the lowest in Europe. The jobs sections of Irish newspapers are full of ads from household-name manufacturers of computers, software, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology - and the companies are casting a net throughout the 25-nation EU to come to Dublin.

Ireland now boasts the European Union's highest per capita gross domestic product of $37,738.

"This is a very, very different place than the Ireland I left in 1993. It's focused on solutions instead of problems. It's a very innovative place where young, smart people thrive," said John Herlihy, a University College Dublin-trained accountant who emigrated to California to work for Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) at a time when Ireland's unemployment rate was an EU-high 18 percent.

He returned home last year to an Ireland with unemployment at an EU-low 4.4 percent.

Herlihy is director of online operations in Dublin for Google, whose tiny office established three years ago has ballooned into a European headquarters with 800 employees, 70 percent of whom aren't from Ireland. Herlihy says they speak 37 languages. The company plans to hire another 600 university-educated, mostly foreign people to work in a second, identically designed office block being constructed next door to its current home.

(AP) Employees interact in a staff game room in the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in...
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"Ireland has become the launching pad for U.S. technology companies into Europe," Herlihy said. "It's very easy to set up and do business here, and the Irish are very culturally attuned to the United States."

More than 1,000 multinationals have operations here; about half are American-based, and about a third conduct research and development in Ireland. Besides the obvious benefits of Ireland's rock-bottom tax rate - a third of the U.S. rate of 35 percent, and much better than the western European average of 30 percent - American companies also like Ireland's command of English. Ireland also is considered better than Britain because the Irish use the convenient euro common currency.

Since 2004, Ireland also has offered a 20 percent tax credit for company spending on research and development. Science Foundation Ireland, which the government established six years ago, sponsors the work of foreign researchers at Irish universities and businesses here with hopes of more R&D in mind.

Ireland ranks at the top of the EU's 15 original members in having enterprises with innovation activity, according to a 2004 Eurostat report. Britain placed third from bottom, tied with Italy.

The economic currents that drove millions of Irish to the United States are pulling them back across the Atlantic. Since 2001, more than 130,000 Irish people have returned from the U.S. to their homeland, a huge influx in a country of just 4 million.

(AP) Employees take part in a team meeting in the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in...
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Ireland was one of three countries - along with Britain and Sweden - to allow unrestricted access to their labor markets when 10 new members joined the EU in 2004. That decision has opened a tide of jobseekers from Eastern Europe; more than 130,000 Poles already live here, and on average 10,000 more Eastern Europeans arrive every month.

Many shops, particularly leasers of construction equipment, have taken to posting signs in Polish rather than English on their windows.

"If you have ambition in Poland, you come to Ireland," said Jerzy Poborsky, a construction worker on one of the dozens of new office blocks, apartments and hotels sprouting in the Docklands along Dublin's River Liffey.

He pointed across the river toward Ireland's financial district, the oldest part of the riverside renaissance.

"My brother and a cousin are working over there now," Poborsky said, gesturing to one distant cluster of cranes and exposed concrete. "I think that's a new bank. The other ones, they are already too full of money," he quipped.

(AP) Employees work in one of the open space work areas in the offices of Google, at their European...
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Immigration hasn't harmed Ireland's low unemployment. Economists say the newcomers largely create jobs or take jobs that Irish people no longer want. A decade ago, when unemployment was about 15 percent, low-paid service jobs were almost exclusively Irish.

The new workers also provide a gastronomic choice unthinkable in the Ireland of the early 1990s, where options were strictly limited to hamburger bars, stodgy pub grub and Chinese, the oldest of Ireland's ethnic minorities. Today on Henry Street, Dublin's best shopping boulevard, there are Indian spice wholesalers, halal butchers and food markets that are closer in spirit to Krakow than Cork.

In the Google lounges, recruits recount tales of training in continental Europe and the United States - and ending up happily in Ireland.

"The job could have been anywhere. Ireland wasn't an issue," said Thomas Bering, a 31-year-old Dane who arrived in January 2005 and provides support to Danish Web sites. "But it is now. Ireland has the most fantastic, friendly people. It's a much nicer place to put a multinational than Denmark."

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On the Net:

Investment and Development Agency guide to Ireland tax, http://www.idaireland.com/home/index.aspx?id659

Science Foundation Ireland, http://www.sfi.ie/home/index.asp

Immigration statistics and trends, http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/stats.pdf

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Thomas Bering, Ad Sense Coordinator relaxes while working in a massage chair at the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in Dublin, Monday, April 10, 2006. Dublin's new Docklands, where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks, offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration blackspot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast food to writing software code. In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the rapidly expanding European headquarters of Internet search-engine giant Google Inc. (AP Photo/John Cogill)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

-------------------- Employees interact in a staff game room in the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in Dublin, Monday, April 10, 2006. Dublin's new Docklands, where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks, offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration blackspot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast food to writing software code. In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the rapidly expanding European headquarters of Internet search-engine giant Google Inc. (AP Photo/John Cogill)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

--------------------- Employees take part in a team meeting in the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in Dublin, Monday, April 10, 2006. Dublin's new Docklands, where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks, offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration blackspot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast food to writing software code. In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the rapidly expanding European headquarters of Internet search-engine giant Google Inc. (AP Photo/John Cogill)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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 Employees work in one of the open space work areas in the offices of Google, at their European headquarters in Dublin, Monday, April 10, 2006. Dublin's new Docklands, where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks, offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration blackspot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese, Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast food to writing software code. In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the rapidly expanding European headquarters of Internet search-engine giant Google Inc. (AP Photo/John Cogill)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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New Version of Ubuntu Software Coming
Email this Story May 31, 10:31 PM (ET)
By PETER SVENSSON

NEW YORK (AP) - A new version of the Ubuntu software package, a flavor of the freely distributed Linux operating system, is due out Thursday.

Ubuntu 6.06, which will be released on CD and as a free download, includes a video interview with former South African President Nelson Mandela, who explains what "ubuntu" means. (It's an African expression that roughly translates as "humanness.")

Ubuntu, launched two years ago, has a reputation for being easy to use. Although Linux is used mostly for servers, Ubuntu is traditionally a desktop product. Canonical Ltd., the British company that puts out Ubuntu, said it has shipped millions of free CDs so far.

Canonical has 50,000 pre-orders for CDs of the latest version, nicknamed "Dapper Drake," according to spokesman Bill Baker.

Dapper Drake is the first Ubuntu release with a server version. It's also the first release for which Canonical will sell long-term support: up to five years for the server version, and three years for the desktop version.

Among other changes, Dapper Drake has a new graphical installer program.

Ubuntu 6.06 will be available for PCs with Intel and AMD processors, Macintosh computers with PowerPC chips and Sun servers with Sparc processors.

Canonical is run and funded by Mark Shuttleworth, a South African Internet millionaire who paid $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket in 2002.
------------ Sweden Police Crack Down on File-Sharing
Email this Story May 31, 12:19 PM (ET)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - In a crackdown on suspected illegal file sharing, police raided 10 locations in central Sweden and shut down a popular site called The Pirate Bay. Three people were detained for questioning.

Three Swedes, ages 22, 24 and 28, were suspected of violating copyright laws but had not been formally arrested, police spokesman Ulf Goranzon said. He said they were linked to The Pirate Bay.

The actions were applauded by the Motion Picture Association of America, which claims movie studios lost $6.1 billion to piracy last year.

"The actions today taken in Sweden serve as a reminder to pirates all over the world that there are no safe harbors for Internet copyright thieves," said Dan Glickman, the MPAA's chief executive.

Last year, a Swedish court handed down the country's first Internet piracy conviction, fining a man $2,200 for using a file-sharing network to distribute a movie online. A district court ruled that Andreas Bawer, 28, violated Swedish copyright laws by making a movie available for others to download.

The verdict was hailed by the entertainment industry as a first step toward stricter enforcement of copyright laws in Sweden, which has been criticized as a safe haven for online piracy. Up to 10 percent of all Swedes are estimated to freely swap music, movies and games on their computers.

The MPAA said The Pirate Bay has made available more than 157,000 illegal files, including movies such as "The Da Vinci Code" and "Mission: Impossible III."

On Wednesday, the site displayed a brief message explaining that its servers had been seized as part of a police investigation. It also said The Pirate Bay could receive compensation from the government "in case that the upcoming legal processes show that TPB is indeed legal."

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