MICROSOFT

U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday after forecast-topping profit reports from Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc and ahead of a reading on the U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product.

Microsoft Corp posted a bigger-than-expected 60 percent jump in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of Windows 7, and said it expected business technology spending to recover this year.

Stock index futures pointed to a flat to higher open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.4 percent at 3:17 a.m..

After being hammered in the regular session, the tech sector is showing modest recovery in after-hours trading.

Microsoft Corp posted a 60 percent increase in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of its new Windows 7 operating system, and said it expected business technology spending to recover this year.

In the latest demonstration of the strength of the PC sector, Microsoft (MSFT) this posted second quarter results that were well ahead of Street estimates.

Microsoft Corp is expected to report a strong jump in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by the successful launch of Windows 7, but it may not be enough to satisfy demanding investors and push its stock higher.

Microsoft Corp is expected to report a strong jump in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by the successful launch of Windows 7, but it may not be enough to satisfy demanding investors and push its stock higher.

Yahoo Inc said revenue could grow for the first time in six quarters in the first three months of 2010, noting that demand for premium display advertising had improved significantly.

Microsoft Corp is expected to report a strong jump in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by the successful launch of Windows 7, but it may not be enough to satisfy demanding investors and push its stock higher.

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates on Monday said the Internet needs to thrive in China as an engine of free speech and described official online censorship by Beijing as very limited.

A security research firm said it discovered another set of vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, a day after Microsoft Corp patched the Web browser following a high-profile cyber attack on Google in China.

EU regulators are seeking market views on whether a Microsoft Corp plan to use Yahoo Inc's search technology would help the U.S. software firm compete against dominant search engine Google Inc.

Microsoft Corp on Thursday released a patch to protect users of its Internet Explorer browser from attacks similar to those directed at Google Inc's operations in China last week.

Microsoft Corp said it will issue a patch to fix the old version of its Internet Explorer browser that allowed recent attacks on Google Inc's network in China.

Congress should enact a law laying the groundwork for protecting consumers who use the Internet cloud to store data before states come in with an unwieldy patchwork of conflicting legislation, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith on Wednesday.

The amount of time youngsters are spending on the web has ballooned to proportions that exceed the average adults full working week, according to a new study.

Microsoft Corp said it will issue a patch to fix the old version of its Internet Explorer browser that allowed recent attacks on Google Inc's network in China.

Apple Inc is talking with Microsoft Corp about making it the default search engine provider for the iPhone, replacing Google Inc, BusinessWeek reported on Wednesday.

Apple Inc is talking to Microsoft Corp about stepping in as the default search engine on the iPhone, replacing Google Inc , according to report on Bloomberg's web site.

Microsoft announced that it will issue a n emergency path for its Internet Explorer browser that will close up a security hole hackers used to exploit a number of US technology companies.