MICROSOFT

Ford Motor Co and Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced an online application designed to help owners of Ford plug-in electric vehicles manage home electricity use while the vehicles recharge.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has lost market share in major European markets, such as France, Britain and Italy, after the U.S. software firm started to make it easier for European consumers to use competing browsers.

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A top executive for Microsoft Corp's MSN China will leave the joint venture, Microsoft said on Thursday, in a setback as the firm struggles to compete in China's hotly contested social networking space.

Microsoft today unveiled a public sneak preview of its newest browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) which is aimed at Web developers.

Motorola Inc has reached a deal with Microsoft Corp that will put Bing search and mapping services on its phones that use Google's Android operating system.

Microsoft fixed eight flaws in Windows and Office on Tuesday, bringing the total number of security bulletins for 2010 up to 17.

Google Inc stepped up its assault on Microsoft Corp's productivity software business with the acquisition of a small start-up company that allows Microsoft users to edit and share their documents on the Web.

In bid to get more people to use Web-based applications, Google Inc. acquired DocVerse, a technology start-up that allows users to collaborate on Microsoft Office files online.

Microsoft said it will stick to its development strategy for the China Internet search market regardless of the outcome of Google's high-profile spat with Beijing.

Microsoft Corp is aiming to launch two phones that will be sold by top U.S. mobile operator Verizon Wireless in late spring or early summer, a person briefed on the matter said on Thursday.

Microsoft plans to spend $9.5 billion on research and development this year, which a senior executive said Thursday is more than any competitor.

Microsoft is still seeing a lot of interest in its Windows 7 computer software launched last year and a new budget cycle will help a gradual recovery in business spending, its chief operating officer said.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer said Windows 7 has sold 90 million licenses since its October 2009 launch.

Investment fund Elliott Associates offered to buy business software maker Novell Inc for $2 billion, sending its shares up 28 percent as investors hoped for a better bid.

Microsoft is still seeing a lot of interest in its Windows 7 computer software launched last year and a new budget cycle will help a gradual recovery in business spending, its chief operating officer said.

Opera Software said on Wednesday it had seen a surge in downloads of its browser after Microsoft started making it easier for Europeans to choose smaller rivals' browsers.

Yahoo Inc CEO Carol Bartz said she does not believe Yahoo needs to discuss Google Inc's Internet search practices with government regulators.

As collaborative applications become ever more important for enterprise, a new report finds that the number of enterprise customers using mobile cloud-based applications will rise to more than 130 million by 2014, facilitated by platform as a service (PaaS) deployments from key players such as Google and Microsoft.

Microsoft denies reports that no current-generation phones will be upgradeable to the forthcoming Windows Mobile 7 which is set to be released later this year.

Google claims Microsoft is taking over lawsuits and complaints brought by third parties to stir up antitrust complaints against them.