Corporate stuff

Microsoft said on Tuesday it has unloaded its Expression Media photo catalog product, selling it to medium-format digital camera maker Phase One.

The software maker didn't say how much it got from the sale. Microsoft acquired the technology that became Expression Media back in 2006, buying Britain's iView Multimedia.

Expression Media had been sold on its own and included as part of a "special media edition" of Office for Mac in the 2008 version of that product.

In a statement, Microsoft said the sale of Expression to Phase One builds on a 2007 strategic alliance between … Read more

Leaving a big publication to launch one's own conference and Web site isn't exactly newfangled.

But three former Fortune staffers hope that what distinguishes their event will be the scale of the problems that it attempts to address.

David Kirkpatrick, Brent Schlender, and Peter Petre are teaming up to launch Techonomy, a conference and Web site devoted to the role that technology can and must play in transforming all aspects of business and society--not just those that the Internet has already transformed.

"The idea is that technology is really the only way we are going to solve … Read more

Microsoft Money may be headed off into the sunset, but Redmond has one last version to offer those who are still using the personal finance product.

The so-called "sunset edition" of Microsoft Money was released earlier this month. Although it has fewer features--stripping out all of the online capabilities--this new version of Microsoft Money doesn't require activation, meaning that users who need to install it on a new PC or who lose their product code won't be stuck without their data.

"The Microsoft Money Plus Sunset versions are replacements for expired versions of Microsoft Money … Read more

With a high-power crowd in the audience, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went hard-core with his sales pitch on the role cloud computing will have for businesses in the coming years.

Speaking to about 125 chief executives and other leaders, Ballmer said that truly big shifts in technology actually don't happen all that often.

"The really big ones you have to totally jump on," Ballmer said during a speech at the company's annual CEO Summit, which runs through Thursday at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash. "We are, right now, all of us in the midst of … Read more

An out-of-control satellite is drifting into the orbit of another satellite that transmits cable programming to the United States, the Associated Press is reporting.

According to the news service, a satellite known as Galaxy 15 broke contact with its owner, Intelsat on April 5. Although the exact cause is unknown, the satellite's owners believe it could have been "knocked out by a solar storm."

Normally, losing contact with a satellite wouldn't be cause for much concern, since in most cases, satellites stop transmitting signals. But Intelsat has confirmed that Galaxy 15 is still transmitting signals to … Read more

Updated May 7, 2:12 p.m., to correct the spelling of Hal Schectman.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Microsoft packed up TechFest and took it on the road Thursday, bringing a chunk of the company research unit's annual science fair to Silicon Valley.

TechFest, and the smaller TechFair event that is taking place here this week, are designed to allow product teams at Microsoft to better understand what folks in the research labs are up to--and vice versa.

Just how important are Microsoft's research labs? Well, the head of the unit notes that Microsoft started the research effort in … Read more

Nintendo's annual earnings have dropped for the first time in six years.

On Thursday, the Wii maker reported a profit of 228.6 billion yen ($2.5 billion) for its fiscal year that ended March 31. That's an 18 percent decline from last year. Sales also slipped 22 percent year over year to 1.4 trillion yen ($15.4 billion).

Nintendo blamed the weaker financial performance on several factors, including a recent price drop on the Wii, fewer strong Wii titles, appreciation of the yen, and poor global sales.

Demand for the Wii was down in the first … Read more

Former Microsoft executive Bill Veghte is expected to be named on Wednesday as the new head for HP's software unit, CNET has learned.

Veghte, who earlier this year ended a 19-year career with Microsoft, was most recently the business head of Microsoft's Windows unit.

Last July, though, Microsoft named Steven Sinofsky to head both the business and engineering sides of Windows. At that time, Microsoft said Veghte would move to some new, unspecified role at the company.

However, in a January interview, Veghte said that he wanted to run a business "end-to-end" and said that there … Read more

Updated 1:40 p.m. with more background and history on Microsoft's newsgroups

Microsoft said it plans to end support for more than 4,000 old-style newsgroups starting next month, pushing users instead to discussion forums such as those found on the Microsoft Answers, TechNet, and MSDN sites.

Although venerable, Microsoft said that so-called NNTP newsgroups are past their time in terms of being usable and secure.

"Newsgroups run on an outdated and discontinued platform that is no longer supported, making them vulnerable to spam and other usability issues," Microsoft said in a statement. The company said … Read more