Microsoft News Tracker

Allison Linn at the AP reports that the financial analysts want more detail on Microsoft’s spending plans at the financial analysts meeting scheduled for July 27:

When Microsoft Corp. gathers financial analysts next week for an annual meeting at its Redmond campus, the demand won’t be so much to “show me the money” as to “show me what you’re doing with the money.”
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Microsoft executives offered some relief Thursday during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call, when they provided a breakdown of the general areas where they plan to allocate about $2.7 billion in increased spending. Still, at the meeting next week, analysts say they are expecting more details on where exactly the money is going - and what shareholders can expect to get in return.
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Microsoft said it expects to spend about $500 million more in the current fiscal year on improving its own Internet-based software offerings. The budget includes money for improving its search and online advertising technology - the key ways it hopes to battle Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

Also during the fiscal year, Microsoft expects to spend about $450 million more on marketing, in part because of the launch of new versions of Windows and Office.

Not to mention Zune which will supposedly duplicate the Xbox 360 marketing expense.

Another $450 million will be spent on boosting its sales efforts.

Microsoft also said it will increase spending by $1 billion to either develop or improve products in areas where it sees potential to grow beyond its traditional Windows and Office roots. These include security and more sophisticated communications technology.

Not to mention Zune again, and frankly I suspect you have to in order to justify $1 billion, because “security and more sophisticated communications technology” don’t seem like real crowd pleasers.

The final $300 million will be for general spending increases and potential acquisition costs.

Although analysts were caught by surprise by the big spending spree, many say they are glad Microsoft is getting more aggressive about competing and expanding its business further beyond Office and Windows, which face an ever-more-saturated market.

Obviously they’re still of the “Microsoft is a growth stock” persuasion.

You may recall that back in May Microsoft acquired Massive Inc., a company with the obscure specialty of putting ads in videogames. This week, Jessica Ramirez reminds us at Newsweek that there’s golf in them thar hills and that Massive is a key player:

While Nielsen was focusing on metrics, a start-up called Massive Inc. devoted itself to creating a videogame network for serving dynamic ads. Through the technology of dynamic ads, Massive was able to insert and change ads in real time as long as the gamer was connected to the Internet via a PC or console. Only months after Massive went live in March 2005, it had big-name advertisers like Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, DaimlerChrysler and Honda pumping ads onto its network. “Their technology is amazing,” says Kelley. “They can tell you down to the nth degree how long your ad was looked at, from what angle and who was looking at it.” And in a TiVo world, advertisers say that’s not a bad deal.

More by following the link, but that brings us to today’s Microsoft press release, Massive Network Launches Groundbreaking Interactive In-Video-Game Advertising Unit; Toyota Is Debut Advertiser With Innovative Campaign for New 2007 Yaris Sedan:

Massive Inc., creator of the world’s leading video game network and wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., today announced that it has launched interactive in-video-game ads, allowing advertisers to engage gamers in new and entertaining ways. The first advertiser to utilize the new interactive ad unit is Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., with a campaign for its new 2007 Yaris sedan in “Anarchy Online,” a top multiplayer online game published by Funcom.

The new interactive ad units can be used in a number of ways to encourage gamer interaction with the advertising and to provide a more engaging brand experience. For the Toyota Yaris campaign, gamers are encouraged to engage with the ads to unveil an image of the new Yaris. The campaign is running in multiple games on the Massive Network and utilizes Massive’s dynamic 2-D elements and full-motion video and audio ads, in addition to the new interactive units, to reach the coveted gaming audience.

Sounds promising, but I wonder about the risk that the ad is more entertaining than the game. The Massive Web site is here.

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced availability of the public betas of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 and the new Forefront Security for Exchange Server. Exchange Server 2007 builds on the leading e-mail, messaging and calendaring server with new features for improved security, remote and mobile access, compliance management, and unified messaging. Forefront Security for Exchange Server helps provide advanced protection against viruses, worms and spam, and is the first product available under the recently announced Microsoft Forefront brand for business security products.

Exchange Server 2007 beta 2 is available for download here, and Forefront Security for Exchange Server beta can be downloaded here.
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General availability for Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront Security for Exchange Server is scheduled for late 2006 or early 2007. Both products will be available through Microsoft’s Volume Licensing program and worldwide partner channel. Forefront Security for Exchange Server will be available as a stand-alone product or as part of the Exchange Enterprise Client Access License package.

The release and the Microsoft home pages for Exchange Server 2007 and Forefront have more information on the enhancements in the products themselves, but recall that Exchange 2007 will be x64 (i.e. 64-bit) only, although as with beta 1, there’s a 32-bit version of beta 2 for “feature evaluation”. Per the beta system requirements, the beta of Forefront Security for Exchange is only 64-bit. Also recall that Forefront is the new branding for Microsoft enterprise security products which in this case is being applied to what was an Antigen product acquired from Sybari.