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-Arslan Khwaja


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Bill Gates under pressure from investors to step down as Microsoft chairman

While Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has been under pressure for years to improve the company's performance and share price, this appears to be the first time that major shareholders are taking aim at Gates, who remains one of the most respected and influential figures in technology.
A representative for Microsoft declined to comment on Tuesday.

There is no indication that Microsoft's board will heed the wishes of the three investors, who collectively hold more than 5 percent of the company's stock, according to the sources. They requested the identity of the investors be kept anonymous because the discussions were private.

Gates owns about 4.5 percent of the $277 billion company and is its largest individual shareholder.
The three investors are concerned that Gates' role as chairman effectively blocks the adoption of new strategies and would limit the power of a new chief executive to make substantial changes. In particular, they point to Gates' role on the special committee searching for Ballmer's successor.

They are also worried that Gates - who spends most of his time on his philanthropic foundation - wields power out of proportion to his declining shareholding.
Gates, who owned 49 percent of Microsoft before it went public in 1986, sells about 80 million Microsoft shares a year under a pre-set plan, which if continued would leave him with no financial stake in the company by 2018.

He lowered his profile at Microsoft after he handed the CEO role to Ballmer in 2000, giving up his day-to-day work there in 2008 to focus on the $38 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In August, Ballmer said he would retire within 12 months, amid pressure from activist fund manager ValueAct Capital Management.
Microsoft is now looking for a new CEO, though its board has said Ballmer's strategy will go forward. He has focused on making devices, such as the Surface tablet and Xbox gaming console, and turning key software into services provided over the Internet. Some investors say that a new chief should not be bound by that strategy.

News that some investors were pushing for Gates to be ousted as chairman provoked mixed reactions from other shareholders.
"This is long overdue," said Todd Lowenstein, a portfolio manager at HighMark Capital Management, which owns Microsoft shares. "Replacing the old guard with some fresh eyes can provide the oxygen needed to properly evaluate their corporate strategy."

Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, suggested now was not the time for Microsoft to ditch Gates, and that he could even play a larger role.
"I've thought that the company has been missing a technology visionary," she said. "Bill (Gates) would fit the bill."

Microsoft is still one of the world's most valuable technology companies, making a net profit of $22 billion last fiscal year. But its core Windows computing operating system, and to a lesser extent the Office software suite, are under pressure from the decline in personal computers as smartphones and tablets grow more popular.

Shares of Microsoft have been essentially static for a decade, and the company has lost ground to Apple and Google in the move toward mobile computing.
One of the sources said Gates was one of the technology industry's greatest pioneers, but the investors felt he was more effective as chief executive than as chairman.

Appeals court revives Microsoft claim against Google

A federal appeals court on Thursday instructed the U.S. International Trade Commission to reconsider a ruling that gave Google Inc a victory over Microsoft Corp in a patent dispute.

Acting on an appeal by Microsoft, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the ITC erred in its reasoning when it found that the Google unit Motorola Mobility did not infringe a Microsoft graphical interface patent.

After a critical discussion of the ITC judge's reasoning, the appeals court said: "This conclusion requires reversal of the 133 patent non-infringement judgment."

But it also said it agreed with the ITC that Motorola Mobility had successfully changed its smartphones so they no longer infringed the patent.

It also found the ITC was correct in ruling that Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google during the legal fight, did not infringe three other patents.

The dispute is one of dozens globally between various smartphone makers. Google's Android system has become the top-selling smartphone operating system, ahead of mobile systems by Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry Ltd and others.

In the original case, the ITC found in May 2012 that Motorola Mobility infringed a patent for meeting-scheduling technology but did not infringe several other Microsoft patents. An order was issued banning infringing mobile phones from the marketplace.

Motorola Mobility says it removed the infringing software from its phones. Microsoft disagrees, and has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, accusing the agency of failing to properly enforce the ITC order.

Microsoft said it was happy with the appeals court decision.

"We're pleased the court determined Google unfairly uses Microsoft technology," said David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel. "Google is free to license our inventions, but we're equally pleased if Google makes product adjustments to avoid using them."

A Motorola Mobility spokesman also saw good news in the appeals court decision. "Today's favorable opinion confirms our position that our products don't infringe the Microsoft patents," said spokesman Matt Kallman.

U.S. courts continue to work during the shutdown of the federal government but the ITC is largely shut down.

The case at the ITC was No. 337-744. At the Federal Circuit, the case is No. 2012-1445, -1535.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) – Nokia Licensing Terms Allegedly Misused By Samsung

A court is considering a sanction against Samsung for allowing some of its employees to view confidential documents between Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Nokia.

At least 50 employees of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) are accused of keeping access to some confidential documents from one of the patent battles between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Samsung. That’s according to a court order spotted by Florian Mueller of Foss Patents.

Apple – Nokia documents exposed

The documents explained the terms of a licensing deal between Apple and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). Those terms were supposed to only be disclosed to Samsung’s outside counsel. Currently Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is seeking sanctions against Samsung for allowing its employees to view the confidential documents.

According to the claims, Samsung executive Dr. Seungho Ahn told Nokia that he knew the terms of its deal with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) while negotiating with Nokia for their own licensing terms with the company. He also said referenced a statement made by Nokia’s Chief Intellectual Property Officer Paul Melin. He said Apple had disclosed the licensing deal in its legal battle with Samsung and that Samsung’s outside counsel gave his team the terms of that deal. Dr. Ahn even went so far as to recite the terms of the deal, saying that “all information leaks.”

Dr. Ahn tried to push Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) into making the same deal it did with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), saying that the terms between those two companies should be the same as the terms between Nokia and Samsung. Nokia now says Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) executives unfairly used knowledge of the confidential information to obtain an unfair advantage in the negotiations.

Apple pushes for a sanction against Samsung

The court is now attempting to learn more about exactly how Samsung employees received access to the confidential documents. The court wants to consider all the evidence before deciding whether sanctions should be imposed against Samsung. However, Samsung has not been cooperating with the court as it tries to determine exactly what happened. The company has chosen not to provide sworn testimony from the executives involved.

Lawyers for Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) claim that there is no need for formal discovery into the case and say that the company can’t provide evidence about who had access to the confidential information, what it was used for, and when and where it was used. The court has ordered some emails and communications to be delivered, however, in addition to depositions from Samsung employees who were able to view the documents.

Nokia's handset business bought by Microsoft for €5.44bn

Microsoft has swooped in to buy the handset business of Finland's Nokia, an audacious move that confirms the Redmond software company's intention to compete with Apple and Google head-on as a "devices and services" business.

The deal, for €5.44bn (£4.6bn), gives Microsoft a company which used to dominate the mobile and smartphone market in 2006 but has been overshadowed by the rise of Apple and, latterly, Samsung and companies using Google's Android software.

For Nokia, it means that a decades-long heritage as one of the world's leading mobile phone makers - which had been a source of huge pride in Finland - is over.

As part of the deal Stephen Elop, now Nokia's chief executive, will rejoin Microsoft, which he left in September 2010 to take over the then-struggling Finnish company. Elop, 49, has been tipped as a leading contender to become the next chief executive of Microsoft, after the announcement at the end of August by Steve Ballmer that he would depart within 12 months. A total of 32,000 Nokia staff will join Microsoft, including 4,700 based in Finland.

Microsoft is also providing €1.5bn of "immediate financing" to Nokia, implying that the Finnish company has hit a cash crunch. Its debt has already been reduced to "junk" status. If used, the loan will be repayable when the deal closes.

"For Nokia, this is an important moment of reinvention and from a position of financial strength, we can build our next chapter," said Risto Siilasmaa, chairman of the Nokia Board of Directors, who now takes over as the interim chief executive of the remaining parts of Nokia. Those are Nokia Siemens Networks, which builds mobile phone infrastructure and its HERE mapping platform. The NSN and mapping business are now just over 50% of revenues, and barely profitable. Elop recently completed the acquisition of 50% of NSN that was owned by Siemens.

But even inside cash-rich Microsoft, Nokia's phone business faces serious challenges. Its handset business has slumped in size from a peak in the third quarter of 2010, with revenues of €7.2bn, to just €2.72 in the second quarter of this year, its smallest size in more than a decade. It has also been lossmaking for five of the past six quarters.

While it is strong in the "feature phone" business in the developing world, it has struggled in the all-important smartphone business. Apple's iPhone and handsets running Google's Android together make up over 95% of sales in the US and China, the world's two largest smartphone markets, according to Kantar Worldpanel's latest figures. Windows Phone only has shares above 10% in Mexico and France, according to the company's figures.

Under the deal, Microsoft is buying the "Lumia" and "Asha" brand names that Nokia has used for its smart and intermediate phones. It has licensed the use of the Nokia brand on handsets for ten years, but the Finnish business will retain ownership of the brand. That will probably mean that the Nokia brand disappearing from handsets in the next decade, ending over 30 years' history in the business.

Having started in 1865 with a pulp mill in the Finnish town of Tampere, Nokia reinvented itself repeatedly, shifting to rubber boot production early in the 20th century, and then making its first telephone exchange in the 1970s. Its first mobile phone appeared in 1981.

Rumours that Microsoft intended to buy Nokia had been floated since Elop joined the company. When he chose to dump its home-grown Symbian and Meego smartphone software in favour of Microsoft's newer Windows Phone software in February 2011, a number of Finnish observers accused him of being a "Trojan horse" for Microsoft.

Ballmer said in a statement: "It's a bold step into the future – a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers of both companies. Bringing these great teams together will accelerate Microsoft's share and profits in phones, and strengthen the overall opportunities for both Microsoft and our partners across our entire family of devices and services."

But the deal could also mean that BlackBerry's best chance of being acquired, by Microsoft, is over. The Canadian handset maker, which has seen its revenues and handset sales plummet, has formed a committee seeking alternatives including a sale. But Carolina Milanesi, smartphone analyst at research group Gartner, commented: "In case there was still hope out there for BlackBerry, this [purchase by Microsoft] is pretty much it. Microsoft will be more aggressive than Nokia in pursuing enterprises."

Microsoft announces massive company-wide reorganization

After weeks of "major restructuring" rumors, Microsoft is confirming a company-wide reorganization on Thursday. In a large staff memo, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer details how the company is aiming for a "One Microsoft," by altering its organization around the "devices and services" vision. The restructuring is massive and touches every corner of Microsoft, shifting its executives into different roles.

Terry Myerson will lead a new operating systems engineering group that will span across console, mobile device, and PC. Myerson used to lead the Windows Phone group at Microsoft, but will now oversee the development of Windows across the various ways it's used at Microsoft, including the Xbox OS. Julie Larson-Green takes over a new devices and studios engineering group. Larson-Green took over from former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky to run the Windows division. Her new role will see her lead a group with all hardware development out of Microsoft, including Surface, Xbox, and all PC-related accessories. A separate applications and services engineering group will be led by Qi Lu, focused on the apps, services, and search products from Microsoft.

On the enterprise side, a new cloud and enterprise engineering group led by Satya Nadella will oversee back-end technologies like datacenter, database, and other enterprise IT-related technologies. Nadella will also run Microsoft's tools and datacenter development, construction, and operations. Microsoft is keeping Eric Rudder in charge of the company's massive Research efforts, while Rick Rashid is moving away from Research into the operating systems group.


Marketing will now be led by Tami Reller, former Windows CFO, who will focus on a new marketing group. Mark Penn, the former Clinton electioneer behind Microsoft's anti-Google campaign will "take a broad view" of the marketing strategy according to Microsoft. COO Kevin Turner will continue leading the worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and stores.

Tony Bates, former head of Microsoft's Skype division, takes a bigger role that leads the business development and evangelism group. Bates will focus on partnerships like Yahoo and Nokia, while taking the many evangelist groups at Microsoft under his control. Finally, Amy Hood will lead a finance group reporting to Kevin Turner, while the legal group will be run by general counsel Brad Smith. HR responsibilities will continue under Lisa Brummel.
Overall, the changes are sweeping and huge for Microsoft as the company looks to change its structure and management in key areas to try and focus on a Microsoft that works together across divisions, rather than one that has traditionally competed internally. As part of the changes, former Office chief Kurt DelBene is retiring from the company. Ballmer rallies the troops several times in his memo, outlining "One strategy, united together, with great communication, decisiveness and positive energy is the only way to fly." He notes the company's successes, "but we all want more," he says. It's lots of change for Microsoft's 90,000+ employees, and Ballmer simply signed off his company-wide email with "Let’s go."


Source: http://foxhippo.com/698356

Windows Phone tweaks back Lumia 1020's 41MP camera

Microsoft had to change its Windows Phone 8 architecture to accommodate the Nokia Lumia 1020p's super high-res image capture and processing.

Nokia's new Lumia 1020 may be a Windows 8 phone, but Microsoft's OS division had to do some shuffling before the phone's enormous 41-megapixel camera could work.
First, Microsoft had to tweak Windows Phone 8 architecture to let the Lumia 1020's camera software processes two images, Windows Phone SVP Joe Belfiore said in an interview Microsoft posted online: one that captures a terrific amount of visual detail, and the condensed 5-megapixel version that's actually small enough to upload and e-mail.
In addition, Microsoft also had to code Windows Phone 8's photo viewer to improve its zoom capability in order to handle the far greater information stored within the larger resolution Lumia 1020 shots.


These changes also equipped Nokia's own camera apps, which include the controls to manually change exposure settings as well as extra features like HDR and panorama modes.
Now, did it really take a year and a half to change up the Windows Phone 8 architecture enough to get the 41-megapixel experience of Nokia's 808 PureView Symbian phone transferred over to a Lumia device.
On the Microsoft side, Windows Phone 7, the OS at the time Nokia became a mostly-Windows Phone shop, just didn't have the chops to handle image processing at high levels, and despite knowing about Nokia's 41-megapixel aspirations from the get go, it apparently took some work for Windows Phone 8 OS to gain that capability, too.
On Nokia's side, I suspect they had to tame that huge bulge created by the camera module in the original phone, which undoubtedly took engineering work to pull off, before they could get enough carrier interest to sign on for the device.

Source: http://foxhippo.com/299873