Cloud Computing

The General Court of the European Union ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot register trademarks for the Skype name and logo. The reason? The name is too similar to that of British broadcast giant Sky, and its distinctive logo is too general. Yep, it’s déjà vu all over again. This is the second time Microsoft has…

With barely a moment to pause and reflect on last week’s epic Build 2015 conference in San Francisco, Microsoft has set up shop in Chicago this week for its inaugural Ignite conference, which replaces TechEd.

After taking a series of minor steps that failed to stop certain types of abuse on its platform, Twitter has finally started to crack down. In doing so, the service is walking a fine line between stopping abuse and silencing speech. And it’s unclear yet what impact these changes will have on the service, let…

  Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer may have driven a tougher bargain with Microsoft than originally expected: According to a recently revealed regulatory filing, both Yahoo and Microsoft can now terminate their recently renegotiated search deal as soon as October 2015, a full five years earlier than before. This is a fairly stunning achievement for Mayer, who…

Last year’s TechEd was the last for the long-running conference, but the most notable thing about it was the utter lack of on-premises announcements. But on the eve of TechEd’s successor, Ignite—which gets underway in two weeks in Chicago—it’s clear that TechEd 2014 wasn’t an exception. Microsoft’s move to the cloud has seriously hindered its…

Microsoft has closed an important deal with Yahoo, which will continue using Bing technologies in its own search experience. The only question what concessions Microsoft made to keep the partnership alive, as Yahoo was known to have been unhappy with search revenues and was actively seeking to change the deal or engage with a new…

  European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday formally accused Google of violating antitrust laws by abusing its dominance in Internet search to harm competitors and consumers. Additionally, Ms. Vestager said that her European Commission was investigating whether Google forces phone makers to favor its own services on the Android mobile OS. Google controls…

After a decade of steady exoduses by top Microsoft executives, a few are starting to return home: following in the footsteps of Stephen Elop, Kurt DelBene has returned to the software giant after two years serving the US Secretary of Health and Human Services and overseeing Healthcare.gov, the Obamacare web portal. DelBene has been named…

Google can’t seem to catch a break these days: the Internet search giant faces several antitrust investigations in Europe, and recent revelations that the US Federal Trade Commission should have pursued an antitrust case against the firm in this country have only damaged the reputations of both entities. But now Google is being accused, again,…

This past weekend, Microsoft moved into middle age, having reached the ripe old age of 40. Let’s look back.