Darren Straight’s Blog

Microsoft today issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Yahoo! Inc. that its Board of Directors has rejected Microsoft’s previously announced proposal to acquire Yahoo!

It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.

We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.

A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising.

The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

As it was thought would happen, Yahoo has rejected Microsoft proposal to buy Yahoo!

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb 11, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today said the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!’s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.

After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments. The Board of Directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company are acting as financial advisors to Yahoo!. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to Yahoo!, and Munger Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as counsel to the outside directors of Yahoo!.

The Wall Street Journal has news that a person familiar with the Microsoft bid of Yahoo knows that Yahoo Inc.’s board plans to reject Microsofts unsolicited $44.6 billion offer to acquire the Web giant.

After a series of meetings over the past week, Yahoo’s board determined that the $31 per share offer “massively undervalues” Yahoo, the person said. It also doesn’t account for the risks Yahoo would be taking by entering into an agreement that might be overturned by regulators. The board plans to send a letter to Microsoft Monday, spelling out its position.

Yahoo’s board believes that Microsoft’s is trying to take advantage of the recent weakness in the company’s share price to “steal” the company. The decision to reject the offer signals that Yahoo’s board is digging in its heels for what could be a long takeover battle. The company is unlikely to consider any offer below $40 per share.

It’s unclear as of yet whether Microsoft would be willing to pay such a premium, which would increase the value of its original cash and stock bid by more than $12 billion but the rejection comes as Yahoo’s board has been considering various other scenarios, including a search advertising partnership with Google.

Microsoft have announced that it has made a proposal to Yahoo! Inc. Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.“We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners.”

“Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the Web, and Yahoo! has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure,” said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft. “The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own.”

The online advertising market is growing at a very fast pace, from over $40 billion in 2007 to nearly $80 billion by 2010. The resulting benefits of scale along with the associated capital costs for advertising platform providers make this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners.

“The combined assets and strong services focus of these two companies will enable us to achieve scale economics while reaching R&D critical mass to deliver innovation breakthroughs,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division of Microsoft. “The industry will be well served by having more than one strong player, offering more value and real choice to advertisers, publishers and consumers.”

The combination will create a more efficient company with synergies in four areas: scale economics driven by audience critical mass and increased value for advertisers; combined engineering talent to accelerate innovation; operational efficiencies through elimination of redundant cost; and the ability to innovate in emerging user experiences such as video and mobile. Microsoft believes these four areas will generate at least $1 billion in annual synergy for the combined entity.

Microsoft has developed a plan and process that will include the employees of both companies to focus on the integration of the combined business. Microsoft intends to offer significant retention packages to Yahoo! engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

Microsoft believes this proposed combination would receive all necessary regulatory approvals and expects that the proposed transaction would be completed in the second half of calendar year 2008.

Microsoft is also committed to working closely with Yahoo! management and its Board of Directors as they, along with Yahoo! shareholders, evaluate this compelling proposal.

You can read the full press release here.

Microsoft has announced that the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program is experiencing strong growth and is now supporting over 50 emerging businesses. Launched in October 2007, the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program is designed to help startups accelerate both software development and market visibility through customized engagement plans consisting of access to premier support staff, software licenses and subscriptions, new technologies, and/or access to Microsoft Technology Centers for software testing and architecture guidance. 

In only four months since the program’s launch, over 30 companies have joined the initial 20 participants, including new entrants StoreXperience, Earth Class Mail and Me.dium.  The growth of this program underscores Microsoft’s investment in the startup and entrepreneurial community worldwide and commitment to accelerating the business success of its partners by providing technical and market resources.

“When we launched the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program last fall, our goal was to identify innovative early-stage startups that were a strategic fit for Microsoft and to create an exceptional opportunity for them to work with us and our global customer base for mutual success,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president of Strategic and Emerging Business Development at Microsoft. “We are very pleased with the excitement and momentum behind the program from the entrepreneurial community, and we will continue to focus on expanding the program to support the success of an even broader set of startups worldwide.”

For more information:

• Microsoft StartupZone
• Microsoft press release
• Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program Q&A

Just signed into Windows Live Messenger for Mobile this morning and recieved the following prompt:

Hello! Starting today, your 30 day trial period begins. By selecting OK you acknowledge that your use of Windows Live services continues to be subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Statement. Data charges from your mobile operator, including roaming fees may apply for using the Windows Live services. At the conclusion of this trial, you will be given the option to purchase a 30 day pass.

Image courtesy of Paul (MVP) from MoDaCo.

Is this message being sent out in error, or is this for real and Microsoft is really going to start charging us to use Windows Live Messenger for Mobile? After all when you use Windows Live Messseger for Mobile for the first time (e.g. after a hard reset of your device) you’ll get the following message:

Your use of Windows Live is subject to the Windows Live Terms of Use located at http://mid.live.com/terms.aspx?client=true and the Microsoft Privacy Statement located at http://mid.live.com/privacy.aspx?client=true. By pressing the ‘Accept’ key below, you hereby accept the Windows Live Terms of Use and Privacy Statement and acknowledge that you are aware of and have had an opportunity to fully review them at the URLs referenced above. In addition, your use of Windows Live may include a free trial period which is limited in duration. In such a case, at the end of this free trial period you will be given the option to either pay a fee to continue use of Windows Live through this application, or to discontinue use and not pay.

Interesting enough the Windows Live ID terms and conditions does contain a clause to cover this:

7.4 Trial Period Offers. You may have received a limited time of free service or some other trial period offer. Unless we notify you otherwise, if you are participating in any trial period offer, you must cancel the service by the end of the trial period to avoid incurring charges. If you do not cancel your service, and we have informed you that the service will automatically be converted into a paid subscription at the end of the trial period, then you authorize us to charge your payment method for the service.

Though before jumping to any conclusions, I think its best that we wait for an official confirmation from Microsoft as to whether this is true or not, or if it was just an error.

Update: Great news - it was an error:

Here’s what Jeff McKean a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft had to say:

Hi folks, Jeff from Microsoft here (any Mobians on the thread will know me from Amsterdam and a few other events) – first of all, sorry for taking so long to get back to you; we needed to do some investigation as Windows Mobile users were not supposed to get that message.

Here’s what happened: This week we rolled out a direct-to-consumer billing service for the Windows Live client on Nokia S60 in the UK and Sweden. Although we are considering doing the same at a future time for Windows Mobile, this has not been implemented – however, something happened and many of you saw a trial message on Windows Mobile devices. Windows Mobile customers shouldn’t have received any notifications of a 30-day trial and we are working as quickly as possible to correct this.

As you may know, we offer Messenger services through mobile operators on lots of handsets, not just Windows Mobile. Traditionally, customers have been billed by their mobile operators for many of these services, either directly or through their data package.

Check out this funny video from the CES 2008 keynote which shows you what Bill Gates’ last day at work in July might just look like.

Video: Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

For those unfamiliar with this exciting competition, the concept is simple! Microsoft are offering IT Professionals the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and creativity by transforming the technical infrastructure of a charity of their choice or tackle one of the problems put forward by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Leonard Cheshire Disability, Global Action Plan or Fauna and Flora International (FFI).

Working to a budget of £15,000, entrants are invited to submit a system design and 400 word summary that outlines how the innovative use of technology can transform the way a charity meets its causes. Entries should only include details of the software and hardware requirements as installation and technical guidance will be provided by Microsoft.  All submissions will be reviewed by a panel of expert judges and those that show the most creative use of technology will be put forward to a shortlist of 10. These will then be put to a public vote to find the overall winner. 

The winning entry will be passed to a team of Microsoft technical specialists who will work with the winner to implement the system. The four runners-up will each receive £1,000 worth of Microsoft software for the charity named on their winning entry. Plus, all five finalists will win a free ticket to TechEd:IT Forum 2008 in Barcelona. Plus those shortlisted will have their system designs turned into a piece of art and exhibited in a top London art gallery.

The competition opened on the 17th of December 2007 and will close on the 21st March 2008. To enter, please click here, or to send your feedback about the competition, please email DesignIT@microsoft.com.

The latest Virtual Earth release of imagery and photogrammetrics includes 36.3 TB of photography and models of 58 new cities worldwide! At a high level the Virtual Earth team have updated the Manhattan imagery, added 44 new cities with their Microsoft (Vexcel) ortho imagery, 36 new US bird’s eye areas, 26 new European bird’s eye areas, 5 areas of US orthos from GlobeXplorer, 17 international orthos from GeoEye, updated UK photos from GetMapping and Holland orthos from Digital Colour Orthophotomap of the Netherlands (DKLN).

Orthos (3Di Hi-res {15cm, unless indicated - Microsoft proprietary}):
United States
Allentown, PA
Bridgeport, CT
Cary, NC
San Bernardino, CA
Pasadena, CA
Ogden, UT
Manchester, NH
Fontana, CA
Corona, CA
Chino, CA
Gladstone, MO
Newport News, VA
Riverside, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
Stamford, CT
Waterbury, CT
West Valley City, UT
Aurora, CO
St. Louis, MO
Kansas City, KS
Eau Claire, WI
Cleveland, OH
Arvada, CO
Boulder, CO
Davenport, IA
El Monte, CA
Independence, MO
Kansas City, MO
Lakewood, CO
Overland Park, KS
Peoria, IL
Salem, OR
Topeka, KS
Wichita, KS
Eugene, OR
Fargo, ND
Green Bay, WI
Medford, OR
Nampa, ID
Springfield, IL
Waukegan, IL

International (3Di Hi-res {15cm, unless indicated - Microsoft proprietary}):
Calgary, Canada (30cm, 2006)
Quebec, Canada(30cm)
Tokyo, Japan

United States (GlobeXplorer, 1ft):
Birmingham, AL
Portland, AL
Maryland/Northern Virgina
Tampa/Ft. Myers, FL
Sacramento Region, CA

International (GeoEye, 1m):
Valencia, Spain
Oporto, Spain
Thessaloniki (Salonica), Greece
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Goteborg, Sweden
Copenhagen, Denmark
Brussels, Belgium
Oslo, Norway
Grand Canaria/Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Casablanca, Morocco
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tahiti, French Polynesia
Moscow, Russia
Christchurch, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

United Kingdom (GetMapping):
England/Wales
Scotland
Holland (DKLN)

Obliques
United States (Pictometry):
Kern, CA
Shasta, CA
El Paso, CO
Danbury, CT
City of East Haven, CT
Prince George, MD
Kalamazoo, MI
Kent, MI
St Louis, MO
Mississippi Metro, MS
Mecklenberg Metro, NC
Raleigh, NC
Hunterdon Metro, NJ
Columbia, NY
Erie, NY
Nassau, NY
Niagara, NY
Orange, NY
Rensselaer, NY
Steuben, NY
Ulster, NY
Poughkeepie Metro, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Harrisburg Metro, PA
Greenville, SC
Spartanburg, SC
Loudon, TN
Knoxville, TN
McLennan, TX
Nueces, TX
Potter-Randall, TX
Beaufort Metro, TX
Richmond, VA
Fairfax, VA
Skagit, WA
Dane, WI

Europe (Blom):
Brussels, Belgium
Luzern, Switzerland
Winterthur, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Frankfurt, Germany
Madrid, Spain
Zaragoza, Spain
Castleford, UK
Chester, UK
Crewe, UK
Darlington, UK
Dearne Valley Urban Area, UK
Harrogate/Knaresborough, UK
Hartlepool, UK
Leeds, UK
London, UK (several Areas of Interest)
Macclesfield/Pretsbury, UK
Middlesborough, UK
Milton Keynes, UK
Newcastle, UK
Reading/Workingham, UK
Scarborough, UK
Scunthorpe, UK
York, UK

3D Cities
UNITED STATES
CALIFORNIA
Chino (124 sq. mi.)
Corona (65.17 sq. mi.)
El Monte (129 sq. mi.)
Fontana (100 sq. mi.)
Fullerton (122 sq. mi.)
Ontario (99.43 sq. mi.)
Pasadena (108 sq. mi.)
Riverside (123 sq. mi.)
San Bernardino (126 sq. mi.)

COLORADO
Arvada (207 sq. mi.)
Aurora (237 sq. mi.)
Boulder (131 sq. mi.)
Lakewood (108 sq. mi.)

CONNECTICUT
Hartford (89.32 sq. mi.)
New Haven (70.29 sq. mi.)
Waterbury (81.46 sq. mi.)

IOWA
Davenport (93.46 sq. mi.)

IDAHO
Nampa (103 sq. mi.)

ILLINOIS
Peoria (83.34 sq. mi.)
Springfield (79.38 sq. mi.)
Waukegan (77.33 sq. mi.)

KANSAS
Kansas City (53.21 sq. mi.)
Overland Park (168 sq. mi.)
Topeka (74.54 sq. mi.)
Wichita (97.86 sq. mi.)

MASSACHUSSETS
Lowell (85.32 sq. mi.)
Springfield (87.43 sq. mi.)
Worcester (54.55 sq. mi.)

MISSOURI
Gladstone (82.76 sq. mi.)
Independence (83.61 sq. mi.)
Kansas City (94.76 sq. mi.)
St Louis (129 sq. mi.)

NORTH CAROLINA
Cary (83.93 sq. mi.)
Charlotte (75.73 sq. mi.)
Durham (113 sq. mi.)
Fayetteville (99.34 sq. mi.)
Greensboro (91.59 sq. mi.)
Raleigh (104 sq. mi.)

NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo (86.02 sq. mi.)

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Manchester (88.08 sq. mi.)

OHIO
Cleveland (122 sq. mi.)

OREGON
Eugene (90.13 sq. mi.)
Gresham (148 sq. mi.)
Hillsboro (111 sq. mi.)
Salem (77.59 sq. mi.)

RHODE ISLAND
Providence (82.71 sq. mi.)

SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City (207 sq. mi.)
Sioux Falls (64.72 sq. mi.)

UTAH
Provo (79.74 sq. mi.)
Salt Lake City (99.66 sq. mi.)
West Valley City (95.8 sq. mi.)

VIRGINIA
Newport News (144 sq. mi.)
Norfolk (172 sq. mi.)
Richmond (99.76 sq. mi.)

WISCONSIN
Eau Claire (86.58 sq. mi.)
Green Bay (85.28 sq. mi.)

CANADA
Lachine (60.9 sq. mi.)

UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool (43.04 sq. mi.)

Microsoft has acquired Multimap, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The acquisition will hopefuly give Microsoft a powerful new location and mapping technology to complement existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform, with future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms, leading the way to new hights.

“The addition of Multimap enhances Microsoft’s position as a leading provider of mapping and location platform services,” said Sharon Baylay, general manager of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the U.K. and globally. We are thrilled to welcome Multimap onboard.”

One of the best-known online mapping companies worldwide, Multimap provides a publicly available personal mapping service at http://www.multimap.com, as well as a range of integrated business services.

“Partnering with Microsoft gives us a world of new opportunities to build our mapping services into new technologies and applications,” said Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Multimap. “As one of the world’s foremost technology brands, Microsoft is in a position to bring even more value to the Multimap service and give people everywhere new, exciting and fun ways to get from point A to point B.”