To be honest, I was hoping the Microsoft - Yahoo deal to be over. Well, I wasn't right. OK, so Yahoo rejected the bid, Microsoft said they won't increase their offer, but everyone was sure there may be other ways for them to get in control of the Internet search giant which doesn't seem to be in a perfect position. Now, Microsoft expresses optimism over this matter. So... where's the truth, after all?


Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Microsoft's senior vice president Jean-Philippe Courtois, said "We continue to have a very close dialogue with Yahoo's shareholders (and) Yahoo's management.", but I guess they're having a closer relashion with Yahoo's shareholders now. The fact that, after rejecting Microsoft's bid, Yahoo ended up with several lawsuits started by its shareholders who weren't happy with the decision doesn't have anything to do with Microsoft, I guess, but this may show them the way to follow, if they want to take over Yahoo.

Now, we should see what happens next, because I have a pretty bad feeling about this story. Although Microsoft may never get its hands on Yahoo, we will hear about this deal a few times to many in the coming months, at least until Yahoo decides to forge a solid alliance with... someone, I can't really tell who's going to be the "winner"...

Today, Microsoft finally released Windows Server 2008. The long-awaited new version of the Windows OS for servers arrived as Microsoft's first challenge against VMWare, marking the entry point into the virtualization realm for Microsoft. I know they had Virtual PC around for a while, but now we're talking about something completely different, as you're going to find out right away...


While Virtual PC was simply a virtualization software, Windows Server 2008 comes with a test version of Hyper-V, a technology that puts virtualization right into the core of the operating system. Basically, Hyper-V adds an extra software layer between the operating system itself and the hardware part, but within six months, Microsoft expects to fully integrate this technology into the OS.

On the other hand, VMWare announced yesterday an agreement to integrate its software into DEll, HP and IBM servers, so it seems a very interesting battle is just about to start... or continue with a higher intensity, depending how you want to look at it.

Windows Server 2008 is available in both 64-bit and 32-bit versions, so you won't have to throw away those old 32-bit servers...just yet.

About one year ago, federal juries in San Diego made Microsoft pay $1.52 billion to Alcatel-Lucent for infringing on two MP3 audio patents with its Windows Media Player, this being the largest patent ruling in history. Now, the European Comission broke the European record, slapping Microsoft with another huge antitrust fine...


Back in March 2004, the European Comission ruled that Microsoft must hand server information to its competitors, because they were extending their monopoly in the workgroup server market by not giving away information to allow rivals to offer product integration. The fine Microsoft got today came as a consequence of this fact - according to the Comission, they were still charging unreasonable amounts to grant access to the server information, until October 2007.

According to Neelie Kroes, competition comissioner "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision. I hope that today's decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft's record of non-compliance."

Did I forget to mention something? Oh, the amount... Here you go - 899 million euros, or simply $1.3 billion. Even considering Microsoft's huge revenue, I guess this isn't quite easy to handle, but I am sure they'll survive, as they always do...