Microsoft News Tracker

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced a series of measures aimed at expanding its Security Software Advisor (SSA) program, including higher payouts to partners and a broader set of eligible deals. As of Dec. 1, 2006, Microsoft will pay advisory fees to eligible security channel partners of up to 30 percent on most commercial, government and educational licensing programs. These adjustments have been made in response to growing demand for the Microsoft® Forefront™ security product lineup from business customers and feedback from the SSA program’s partner base, which has swelled to over 1,700 members in only four months.
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The SSA program delivers additional value to Microsoft’s Security Solutions Competency, a program for partners that specialize in the sale and deployment of security solutions and services. As part of the overall Microsoft Partner Program, the competency provides substantial business opportunities and supports partners as they develop their businesses around Microsoft security solutions and services.

This program’s expansion follows a number of recent Microsoft Forefront product announcements. Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint® were launched earlier this month to help businesses protect Exchange Server 2007 and 2007 versions of SharePoint Products and Technologies against malware, spam, inappropriate content and unwanted files. In November, the Microsoft Forefront Client Security public beta was launched to protect laptops and server operating systems from viruses, worms spyware, rootkits, and Trojan horses.

More details about the SSA program and what it means for security partners can be found at https://partner.microsoft.com/securitysoftwareadvisor.

As we have mentioned previously, the business security software market is quite lucrative and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Microsoft branded offerings for Microsoft middleware like Exchange or SharePoint. However, as always, Microsoft’s business sales are driven by partners so apparently it was felt some incentives were in order to get traction for Forefront out of the gate. That being said, this was merely a broadening of the SSA program, which was started earlier in the year, to include the latest Forefront products.

It’s not an antitrust suit against Microsoft, but Frances’s UFC-Que Choisir has a similar bee in their bonnet:

France’s leading consumer watchdog said on Thursday it would take U.S. computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. and two retailers to court to unbundle software from personal computers sold in their stores.

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UFC-Que Choisir legal officer Sandra Wouhling said current practice effectively forced ordinary consumers to buy computers using Microsoft operating systems whereas companies and administrations were offered a real choice.

I’m sure that even in France there are sources of “clean machines” for those that want them, so I wonder at the rationale for making all vendors offer them.

As forewarned, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard yesterday announced an alliance for sales of IT services to enterprises:

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and HP (NYSE “HPQ,” Nasdaq “HPQ”) today announced a three-year agreement to deliver an expanded portfolio of solutions for enterprise customers around the world. HP is the first premier global partner to deliver comprehensive solutions for the People-Ready Business, Microsoft’s vision for how people, armed with the right software, are the key to driving business success.

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“Extending our strategic alliance with Microsoft further strengthens HP’s enterprise strategy, which is focused on empowering CIOs to align IT with business by delivering more cost-effective, scalable, secure ways of enhancing employee productivity,” said Ann Livermore, executive vice president of the Technology Solutions Group at HP.

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To help enterprise customers worldwide realize greater value from their existing IT assets, capitalize on next-generation technologies, and achieve a more agile, adaptive enterprise, the new HP & Microsoft Solutions for the People-Ready Business portfolio will focus on five high-growth areas of IT investment: messaging and unified communications; collaboration and content management; business intelligence; business process integration; and core infrastructure.

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Building on a more than 20-year alliance, Microsoft and HP plan to invest at least $300 million over three years to cover collaborative efforts in solution development, testing, validation, deployment, and joint sales and marketing.

Microsoft is not exactly short of partners selling Microsoft based IT services to big business, so there’s not much novel about this announcement other than a little public stroking of HP for buying into the “People-Ready” schtick plus the renewal of long standing vows.

Last week’s rumor of Microsoft paradoxically contracting for search results from China’s Baidu search engine looks to be at least partially correct based on a brief report from Dow Jones Newswires:

Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU) said Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) agreed to display Baidu.com’s paid search listings on certain search results pages in China.

Baidu.com, a Chinese based Internet search provider, said Microsoft will display the listings on MSN, Live and other partner Web sites in China.

Baidu.com said the alliance started in December.

No financial terms of the deal were disclosed

It’ll be interesting to see the details and spin on this one. “Paid search listings” almost sounds like Microsoft is outsourcing Chinese search ads.

Update: It is ads and as odd as it may seem, Baidu won this eyeball auction. I guess Microsoft’s adCenter doesn’t have to worry about doing China. The press release at Baidu:

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) today announced a strategic alliance on paid search services, which will officially commence in December 2006. As a result of this strategic alliance, Microsoft will display Baidu’s paid search listings on the search results pages of certain Microsoft websites, including MSN, Live, and other partner websites in China.

“Microsoft is committed to bringing innovative online services and software, including search services, to Chinese Internet users,” said Erik Johnson, General Manager, Microsoft Online Services Group, Greater China. “China is one of our most important markets and the strategic alliance with Baidu will help us provide new opportunities for advertisers which will further enhance our search business in China.”

“Baidu’s partnership with Microsoft recognizes the huge potential and rate of growth of the Chinese online search market”, said David Zhu, COO of Baidu. “We are delighted to share our rich business experience and channel resources with our partners and contribute to the overall development of the Chinese search market.”

Update: One hopes that Microsoft has the guys with green eyeshades watching the Baidu results closely since they reportedly have more than the usual problem with click fraud. More here.

Update: WR Hambrecht analysts James Lee and Xiaofan Zhang provide some more commentary here including the fact that MSN China previously had no search monetization.