Microsoft News Tracker

Last year Microsoft acquired FrontBridge Technologies which provided a number of hosted add-on services (e.g. archiving, spam and virus filtering) for popular email servers including Microsoft Exchange. Now Microsoft had put its own stamp on the FrontBridge offerings as Joris Evers reports for CNET:

Microsoft has repackaged the hosted messaging service it acquired when it bought FrontBridge Technologies last year.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker has rebranded the service “Exchange Hosted Services,” crafting a new, per-user licensing model and future plans call for closer ties with Microsoft’s Exchange mail server, company representatives said in an interview Wednesday.
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The messaging service is part of Microsoft’s overall effort to offer services that complement nearly all its software products. Although the company has unveiled many such services for small businesses and consumers, the FrontBridge technology is one of few examples of what it intends to offer large companies.

Of particular interest for non-Exchange customers:

Despite the new Exchange-centric name, the filtering and encryption services do work with other e-mail platforms such as IBM’s Lotus software, the Microsoft representatives said. There are no plans to change that, they said.

The official press release is here.

Ingrid Marson at ZDNet (UK) has a detailed recounting of the first day of the Microsoft antitrust compliance hearing before the European Commission that we mentioned earlier today. It doesn’t look like the Commission is buying Microsoft’s arguments, but that isn’t unexpected. More hopeful is:

Although the Commission appears unwavering in its decision that Microsoft has not complied with the order, the prospect for reaching a settlement on the fine may be greater, the source said.

During the hearing, one member of the Commission’s examination team noted that Microsoft has “made some progress” in providing better documentation.

“Because there has been continuous improvements in documentation, a settlement may be possible, whereas before the Commission refused to settle,” the source speculated.

As for tomorrow’s session, that’s when third parties with an interest in the case will testify.

Speaking of interested parties, Paul Meller of the IDG News Service reports that the US State Department weighed in today with a letter:

U.S. diplomats have intervened, urging the European Commission as well as all 25 national governments in the European Union to be fair to the company, diplomats and Commission officials said Thursday as the closed-door hearings got underway.
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According to a memo written by unnamed government officials in Washington, D.C., the Microsoft complaints raise “substantial concerns” about the way Microsoft is being treated in the antitrust case, said a person familiar with the Commission’s activities. The memo was distributed to embassies around the E.U. and through the U.S. mission to the E.U. in Brussels.

Diplomats from the U.S. mission to the E.U. visited the offices of three European commissioners earlier this week. Jonathan Todd, the spokesman for Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes confirmed that her close aides met with U.S. diplomats this week, and received the memo. He declined to comment on its content.

U.S. diplomats are also understood to have visited the offices of Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy and Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen, according to a person familiar with the Commission’s activities.

A U.S. diplomat denied that the government is coming to Microsoft’s aide in its antitrust dispute. “Our interest is less that than wanting to see that everything is done properly,” the diplomat said on the condition of anonymity.

“We are careful not to take a position on the accuracy of Microsoft’s accusations, but if they were true they would be a matter of concern,” the diplomat said.

More on the history of diplomatic efforts by following the link.

At Microsoft’s Windows Server Division WebLog, product manager Shola Aluko reports that Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 will be officially launched next week at the Storage Networking World conference. You may recall that it was released to manufacturing last December.

Martin LaMonica at CNET:

IBM upped the stakes in an ongoing contest over corporate e-mail software with a program that offers business partners up to $20,000 to dump Microsoft’s Exchange in favor of IBM’s Lotus software on Linux.

Dubbed “Migrate to the Penguin,” the latest IBM incentive plan, to be announced later on Thursday, is an expansion of its Move2Lotus program, which is aimed at winning over third-party consultants and software resellers that work with Microsoft’s Exchange.

IBM is offering a limited-time rebate for IBM partners that move customers from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux. The offer gives $20 per licensed Exchange user, or “seat,” maxing out at $20,000.

In addition, IBM is offering a service to have customers’ Domino servers hosted on a trial basis rather than have the software installed on in-office servers.

Since Domino runs perfectly well on Windows server operating systems, I guess they are really fired up. Perhaps it was Steve Ballmer’s comments after announcing the “People-Ready” campaign?

Today’s the start of the European Commission hearing on Microsoft’s appeal of the large fines slapped on them for noncompliance with the EC’s antitrust directives and the two sides were getting in some verbal jabs before the bout started. Microsoft lead off with a press release, Tech Companies Say Microsoft Documents Enable Product Development, that quoted six firms, including EMC, as saying that Microsoft’s technical documentation of server protocols was just dandy:

The companies say they have successfully used that documentation to develop and release interoperable software products to the marketplace.

The EC seemed to be caught flatfooted, but quickly fired back:

“The reason for this hearing is purely a media exercise for Microsoft,” Cecilio Madero, senior Commission official leading the case at the two-day closed hearing, told reporters.

Then as the parties entered the hearing there was more:

“We have complied beyond the requirements of the Commission’s decision,” Microsoft’s top lawyer, Brad Smith, told reporters before the hearing. “Microsoft is willing to do more … Daily fines are not the solution.”

Microsoft says it has submitted 12,000 pages of documentation and will offer parts of its vital source code for work group servers as well as 500 hours of free technical support from Microsoft engineers.

But the Commission dismissed the Microsoft argument.

“Our independent trustee, who is advising the Commission and who was suggested to us by Microsoft, Professor Neil Barrett, has told us the document is, to quote, ‘totally useless’,” said Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd.

Microsoft, the Commission and third parties such as associations representing Microsoft’s rivals and technology pressure groups will take part in the hearing.

The information will then be assessed by the Commission, which will decide whether to fine Microsoft. This process is likely to take several weeks, the Commission said.

Todd also got in another zinger:

But EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the company still has to comply with a 2-year-old antitrust order to share technical information with rivals.

“The best outcome for everybody would be that Microsoft were to finally do that,” he said.

One further note - Microsoft canceled a planned press briefing after today’s hearing:

Microsoft (MSFT) cancelled an 1115 GMT news conference on Thursday on a private EU hearing into whether it should be fined in an antitrust case after the hearing officer requested confidentiality.

“The Commission’s hearing officer made a clear request to all parties in the Microsoft oral hearing to respect the confidentiality of the process,” Microsoft said in a statement.

“Microsoft will respect this request and has therefore cancelled the press briefing.”

Go to your corners, come out swinging, and let’s have a clean fight! More seriously, does anyone expect Microsoft to come ahead on this hearing?