AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

BusinessWeek
Moving past the Yahoo saga, the software giant is buying semantic search engine Powerset as a way of closing the gap with Google
Still smarting from a failed attempt to buy Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) is trying another tactic to gain on Google (GOOG) in Web search.
Microsoft is buying Powerset, developer of what it hopes is [...]

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Advertising Age
Navic Networks Available on 35 Million Set-Top Boxes
The Microsoft-Google war has moved from the web to the TV. Microsoft today announced it will buy Navic Networks, an addressable advertising technology provider that enables marketers to dynamically target and measure audiences based on patented technology available in 35 million set-top boxes nationwide.
Scott Ferris, general manager [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
One of the most successful business partnerships in history was coming unraveled. It was early 2000, and Bill Gates had relinquished the chief executive’s job at Microsoft Corp. to Steve Ballmer — for the first time taking a back seat to his college pal and right-hand man of 20 years.
Mr. Ballmer got [...]

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The Los Angeles Times
Pointing to an early 2009 launch, the site aims to carve out lucrative online real estate for advertisers.

Microsoft Corp. is teaming up with BermanBraun, a Santa Monica production firm, to create an online destination to tap consumers’ near obsession with celebrities.
The yet-unnamed venture should launch early next year, Rob Bennett, general manager [...]

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RoughType
Bill Gates, in his farewell address at Microsoft’s TechEd developer conference today, sketched out Microsoft’s expansive plan for cloud computing. The company, he said, will have “many millions” of servers in a network of data centers. Those centers will ultimately provide as utility services everything done today by traditional Microsoft software installed on local servers:
We’re [...]

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Advertising Age
At Microsoft Advance ‘08: Strong Content Also Needs Interactivity, Community
According to Michael Eisner, story-driven online content is the next big app. “YouTube is to the internet what a nickelodeon is to the movies. It’s the preliminary installment of what is to come,” he said So what is to come? “Great, creative storytelling.”
He continued: “YouTube [...]

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The New York Times
Calling all would-be Judd Apatows, Martin Scorseses and Coen brothers. Your cinematic ambitions may be supported by an unlikely patron, based not in Hollywood but more than a thousand miles to the north in Redmond, Wash.
That geographic clue gives away the sponsor: the Microsoft Corporation, which is underwriting an online movie-making contest [...]

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BusinessWeek
For the outgoing Microsoft president, heading the $37.3 billion philanthropic organization will be “a dream job”
It didn’t take long for Microsoft President Jeff Raikes to figure out his second career. Just four months after announcing plans to retire (BusinessWeek.com, 1/10/08) as president of Microsoft’s business software operations, Raikes said on May 12 that he would [...]

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TechCrunch
With Microsoft walking away from the Yahoo deal, there’s been a lot of talk about what it’s next best option would be. Going after AOL is an obvious choice. It has the ad inventory (aka pageviews) Microsoft needs, has its own collection of growing online advertising businesses, and has a very willing seller in parent [...]

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Digital Media Wire
Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced on Tuesday that it has added more than 800 downloadable TV show episodes from NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Liberty Media (NASD: LINTA) and other providers to the online store for its Zune portable media player. Notable in the deal is NBC Universal’s [...]

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