Microsoft and Baidu launch joint search partnership - TNW Microsoft. Microsoft has announced a joint search partnership with Chinese search engine giant Baidu, which will see Bing power all search queries made in English. Reuters reported on the deal earlier today, and it seems that any search carried out in English will automatically trigger Bing, and the results will be parsed into Baidu’s pages.
Microsoft and Baidu originally formed a paid search partnership back in 2006, and under the terms of that agreement, Baidu’s paid listings appeared on the results pages of the Chinese-language versions of Microsoft sites such as MSN and Live Search, the latter of which was relaunched as Bing in 2009. This latest partnership has been rumored for a number of months, and we first reported on this back in May. Now, it seems the partnership is official and this will give Microsoft better access to China’s 450m+ Internet users.
Baidu holds fort in the the Chinese search engine market, holding more than three quarters of all searches. Why Not All Earnings Are Equal; Microsoft Has the Wal-Mart Disease - Adam Hartung - Growth - Dealing with Market Shifts. For the first time in 20 years, Apple's quarterly profit exceeded Microsoft's (see BusinessWeek.com "Microsoft's Net Falls Below Apple As iPad Eats Into Sales.) Thus, on the face of things, the companies should be roughly equally valued. But they aren't. This week Microsoft's market capitalization is about $215B, while Apple's is about $365B - about 70% higher. The difference is, of course, growth - and how a lack of it changes management - including Microsoft According to the Conference Board, growth stalls are deadly.
When a company hits a growth stall, 93% of the time it will be unable to maintain even a 2% growth rate. 75% of the time we can expect it will fall into a no growth, or declining, revenue environment. At Microsoft, we see a company that has been completely unable to deal with the market shift toward smartphones and tablets: The overall PC market declined by 2% last quarter Consumer PC shipments dropped 8% last quarter Netbook sales plunged 40% Not all earnings are equal. Microsoft Net Falls Below Apple’s as IPad Eats Into Sales. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Windows sales slumped last quarter as the iPad crimped demand for consumer laptops, marking the first time in 20 years that the software maker reported a smaller quarterly profit than Apple Inc.
(AAPL) Revenue in Microsoft’s Windows division fell 4.4 percent to $4.45 billion, the Redmond, Washington-based company said yesterday in a statement. That missed the $4.6 billion average prediction of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net income was $5.23 billion, eclipsed by the $5.99 billion reported by Apple last quarter. Consumer PC shipments dropped 8 percent in the quarter, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said.
“You have to live underneath a rock not to know that the iPad has taken share from the netbook,” said Pat Becker Jr., principal of Portland, Oregon-based Becker Capital Management Inc., which holds Microsoft shares as part of its $2.5 billion in assets. Less Than Apple “It’s fair to say tablet is some of that,” he said. Office Sales. Microsoft snubs banks for $8.5 billion Skype takeover. Neuf ans de sanctions contre Microsoft ont-elles été efficaces? Les bureaux de Microsoft à Washington - Photo: Bloomberg News Neuf ans de sanctions américaines contre Microsoft ont pris fin la semaine dernière aux États-Unis, sans que les experts s'accordent à dire si ce sont elles ou si c'est l'évolution naturelle des technologies qui a permis l'essor de nouveaux géants comme Apple et Google.
«Pour moi, il est tout à fait logique que le ministère de la Justice (américain) ait mis fin à ses (sanctions), car Microsoft est vraiment menacé sur plusieurs fronts maintenant», note l'analyste de Forrester Research Frank Gillett. Aujourd'hui, le navigateur (logiciel d'accès à internet) de Microsoft, Internet Explorer, n'a plus que 55% de part de marché, selon le cabinet NetMarketShare. En 2002, cette part était évaluée à 95%. Entre-temps, Firefox, de la fondation Mozilla, puis Chrome, de Google, lui ont taillé de larges croupières (22% et 12% aujourd'hui). Alors, les sanctions ont-elles été efficaces? «Google aurait émergé. Un co-auteur de M. De quoi, selon M. Pourquoi Microsoft parie autant sur Skype. Les grosses acquisitions ne sont pas vraiment dans les gènes de Microsoft.
On se rappelle de son échec en 2008 pour racheter Yahoo pour 48 milliards de dollars et de ses approches en 2004 pour s'emparer de SAP pour 50 milliards. Le n°1 mondial du logiciel est manifestement plus à l'aise avec les start-up. Mais quand il aime, il ne compte pas. Il avait ainsi déboursé 6 milliards de dollars en 2007 pour la régie publicitaire aQuantive, jusque là record du groupe. Là, il met 8,5 milliards de dollars sur la table pour s'offrir Skype, un des plus beaux noms d'Internet... mais pas forcément un des plus rentable. Skype vaut-il vraiment 8,5 milliards de dollars ? Le prix accepté par Microsoft étonne a priori. Skype peut certes revendiquer le rang de n°1 de la téléphonie grand public sur internet, avec 660 millions d'inscrits et un nombre moyen de 145 millions d'utilisateurs par mois, l'entreprise a toujours du mal à être rentable. Pourquoi Microsoft accepte-t-il de payer un tel prix ?
Why Microsoft is Buying Skype for $8 Billion: Tech News and Analysis « Skype CEO Tony Bates Updated at 12 midnight. Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, in an all-cash deal. The deal closed a few hours ago. is close to finalizing a deal to buy Skype for between $7 billion to $8 billion. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the news after we had first reported it yesterday. The announcement is likely to come out later today or tomorrow morning, according to several reports. Skype has been up for sale for some time, thanks to some very antsy investors. It won’t surprise me if Microsoft comes in for major heat on this decision to buy Skype — and the software company could always botch this purchase, as it often does when it buys a company.
I also don’t believe Facebook and Google were serious buyers. Guess Who’s the Big Winner The biggest winner of this deal could actually be Facebook. Facebook needs Skype badly. Facebook can also help Skype get more customers for its SkypeOut service, and it can have folks use Facebook Credits to pay for Skype minutes.