Robert J. Mullins

Industry analysts largely applaud Microsoft€™s $1.28 billion acquisition of enterprise social networking vendor Yammer, but worry that what makes Yammer a unique and popular social network may be lost as it€™s folded into Microsoft€™s other workplace productivity software. Microsoft and Yammer stepped forward June 25 to say that Yammer had agreed to the acquisition 10 […]

After more than a week of rumors, Microsoft and Yammer confirmed June 25 that the software giant will acquire the enterprise social networking site Yammer for $1.2 billion. Yammer will remain a standalone business led by its current CEO David Sacks and operate within Microsoft€™s Office division headed by its president, Kurt DelBene. Microsoft CEO […]

Many Microsoft employees will likely do a lot of relaxing this weekend after a long and busy week of big changes at the company, from Surface to Windows Phone 8 and a possible acquisition in the enterprise social networking space. The most fundamental change for Microsoft was the introduction of the Surface tablet computer, which […]

Microsoft and Yammer continue to refuse comment on plans for Microsoft to acquire the enterprise social networking company for a reported $1.2 billion, but that hasn€™t dampened the speculation about what such a deal might mean. Tom Kelly is the CEO of Moxie Software, which delivers an enterprise social media platform that uses crowdsourcing and […]

The next version of the Windows Phone operating system will add voice command technology similar to €œSiri€ on the Apple iPhone 4S, both of which signal the growing sophistication of voice-recognition technology, according to industry observers. The Microsoft technology was demonstrated for software developers attending the Windows Phone Summit June 20 in San Francisco where […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft unveiled new features of the upcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system that should simplify enterprise management and security by bringing to the devices the same features of office desktop PCs. At the Windows Phone Summit held June 20 in San Francisco, Microsoft executives provided a Windows Phone Platform Preview to developers […]

Now HP and Dell know what they’re up against when they start to build tablet computers to run the new Windows 8 operating system, and it’s not just the tablet king Apple iPad, but their own software partner Microsoft. Rather than just rely on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus […]

SAN FRANCISCO-Worries about layoffs of thousands of employees at Nokia and billions of dollars in cost-cutting didn’t deter the handset maker and Microsoft from looking toward the future of their partnership and the upcoming release of the newest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8. At the Windows Phone Summit June 20 in San Francisco, executives […]

The rumormongers were proven right June 18 when Microsoft unveiled a coming tablet computer, the Microsoft Surface, for which it will design the hardware and software in an integrated fashion€”a strategy it believes will allow it to take on the Apple iPad. “Any interaction between human and machine can be made better when all aspects […]

Nokia and Microsoft both needed each other for Nokia to try to regain its smartphone dominance and for Microsoft to build sales of Windows Phone 7 devices. But analyst Ramon Llamos of IDC thinks both can still pull it off once Nokia gets its act together. Doubts about whether Nokia could deliver for Microsoft were […]

In its never-ending effort to best Google in the search advertising business, Microsoft has partnered with Yelp to integrate its reviews into Bing search results. The move by Microsoft, announced on a Bing Community blog post June 14, follows a similar move by Google to incorporate Zagat reviews into its Google+ Local Pages search function, […]

News reports have claimed that Microsoft is going to make its own tablet computer running its coming Windows 8 operating system. The Website AllThingsD, a product of The Wall Street Journal, reports that Microsoft is going to mirror Apple and manufacture the hardware and software together in a coming tablet computer. Microsoft invited reporters to […]