Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » juillet 3, 2012

BetaNews.Com (11 non lus)

Micron swoops in to save Elpida, becomes top-tier supplier

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 9:45pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Micron set itself up to be the world's top tablet and mobile memory supplier after announcing its intent to purchase Elpida on Monday. Apple is one of Elpida's biggest customers, and its chips are found in devices and Macs throughout its product line.

Micron will pay Elpida creditors $2.5 billion to settle any claims, and will pay Elpida $750 million to purchase its assets. Another $1.75 billion is to be paid through 2019 in installment payments for foundry services to be provided by Elpida to Micron, which will now operate as a Micron subsidiary.

Closure of the the deal is expected within six months, and Tokyo bankruptcy court approval.

With Elpida already the world's third largest memory supplier, Micron is now one of the world's top memory manufacturers with positions in several markets. Elpida is a leading memory supplier to Apple, and primarily produces DRAM memory for smartphones and tablets. Micron, on the other hand, produces memory for enterprise systems and servers, but had trouble breaking into the increasingly lucrative mobile market. This deal answers that problem.

While Micron is now significantly larger, there are still larger competitors -- Samsung and Hynix. According to IHS iSuppli, Samsung controls about 40 percent of the market, while Hynix comes in second with 23 percent. Previous to the acquisition Micron held a 12 percent share: adding Elpida's customers will place it within striking distance if not slightly ahead of Hynix with a 22 to 23 percent share, IHS iSuppli says.

"The purchase of Elpida represents a huge boost for Micron’s status in the DRAM industry", IHS iSuppli DRAM analyst Mike Howard says. "Micron is gaining access to some excellent mobile DRAM technology, which should greatly improve its product portfolio".

Regardless, the real reason Elpida is in the arms of Micron is financial. The company is in trouble financially, and is currently reorganizing following bankruptcy in April. Elpida needs court approval for its reorganization plans, and a buyout agreement may be the answer.

"Joining with Micron also delivers a clear advantage for Elpida's customers, suppliers and employees," Elpida co-trustee Yukio Sakamoto says. "The transaction is a strong testament to the value of Elpida's technologies, products and people, and it will result in a combined organization that can best serve customers with broader memory solutions, strength and scale."
If this were 2016, you'd be reading this story on a tablet

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 9:39pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Tablets are the hottest computing devices right now, and thanks to the likes of Google Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface, they’re only going to gain in popularity. In fact, the latest NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report has them on target to surpass notebook shipments by 2016. Not too shabby for a platform that didn’t even really exist before the original iPad launched in April 2010.

The total number of mobile PC shipments for 2012 is estimated at 347 million units, with tablets accounting for around 121 million of those. Notebooks are forecast at 208 million units, with mini-note PCs (netbooks) making up the remaining 18 million shipments.

NPD DisplaySearch sees total mobile PC shipments rising to an impressive 809 million units by 2017, with tablets accounting for 416 million units of that, compared to notebook shipments which are expected to grow to 393 million.

Most of the growth for tablet devices is likely to come from adoption in mature markets (including North America, Japan and Western Europe), because, as Richard Shim, senior analyst at NPD DisplaySearch notes, this is where new entrants are tending to launch their initial products. “Services and infrastructure needed to create compelling new usage models are often better established in mature markets,” he also observes. These mature markets are expected to account for 66% of shipments in 2012, and remain steady at around 60% for the next five years.

NPD DisplaySearch’s prediction is based on the natural assumption that tablet PCs are going to evolve and become more powerful, narrowing the performance gap between them and traditional mobile computing devices, while remaining as convenient and affordable as they currently are.

The figures are certainly encouraging, and show, despite Apple’s present dominance, that there’s still plenty of market share for Google, Microsoft, and others to compete for -- which is good news for them, and even better news for consumers like us.
Android phones automatically connect to Wi-Fi hotspsots with new platform

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 9:38pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Last week, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced a certification program that assures devices will be able to seamlessly hand off their mobile data connection to a Wi-Fi connection and vice-versa. This program is called Wi-Fi certified Passpoint, and it was defined by service providers who desperately need a way to ease traffic on their congested mobile broadband networks. With devices that can automatically pair and connect over Wi-Fi, mobile networks can spare themselves some traffic.

The first devices certified in the the Passpoint test bed included: Access points from BelAir, Broadcom, Cisco, Ruckus Wireless, XSpan, and Qualcomm, as well as chips from Intel and Marvell. Included in the announcement last week was MediaTek's Hotspot 2.0 Client V1, which today the company said is the first (and only) smartphone system-on-a-chip to be involved in the project, and it's for mid- and entry-level dual-SIM Android devices.

MediaTek Hotspot 2.0 Client V1 is actually based on MediaTek's MT6620 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GPS/FM combo chip, which the company first debuted exactly one year ago, and it is paired with a 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor and an Imagination Technologies PowerVR Series5 SGX GPU and an 8 megapixel image sensor. The whole thing runs Android 4.0 (ICS).

The reason why this is noteworthy is because these components are already in mass production, and shipping in commercially available devices, including smartphones, tablets, portable media players (PMPs), portable game consoles, and personal navigation devices.

Entry-level, dual-SIM Android smartphones utilizing the experimental Certified Wi-Fi Passpoint platform could be hitting the market very soon.

credit: 21thDesign/Shutterstock
Apple doesn't want you to know my film, 'Steve Jobs -- The Lost Interview', is on iTunes

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 6:39pm CEST par Robert X. Cringely

My little film about Steve Jobs has finally made it to iTunes (YouTube as well!) as a $3.99 rental, but you wouldn’t know it. Deeming the film “too controversial,” Apple has it on the site but they aren’t promoting it and won’t. The topic is “too sensitive” you see. It isn’t even listed in the iTunes new releases. You have to search for it. But it’s there.

Maybe I’m not even supposed to tell you.

Of course, there is nothing controversial or insensitive about this movie, which everyone including the critics seems to like. It’s a different look at an interesting guy and some people seem to take away a lot from it. You be the judge.

I think this says a lot more about Apple than it does about the movie. This is the most valuable company on earth and when you get that big all news you don’t absolutely control is assumed to be bad news. And at Apple the big unanswered question is this: What if Laurene Jobs (Mrs. Steve) doesn’t like this movie?

She’s a big shareholder, there’s this whole mystic Cult of Steve thing going on, this could be really, really bad.

Only it isn’t bad at all.

The question is unanswered only because to my knowledge it has gone unasked.

Laurene Jobs has her own Blu-Ray copy of Steve Jobs — The Lost Interview and has had it since last year. I sent it to her myself at the request of her best friend.

So there: question answered.

This feels way too much like the 8th grade.

Reprinted with permission.
Does your PC have touchscreen display? You need Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 6:20pm CEST par Nick Peers

Windows 8 may be the time when touchscreen technology finally comes of age in relation to laptops and desktops, but much of the groundwork is already present in the current version of Windows. Purchase a touchscreen display now and you’ll find Windows 7 is more than capable of letting you control it via your fingertips.

Microsoft didn’t do an awful lot to push touchscreens in Windows 7, however. One thing it has provided, though, is a collection of tools and games that showcases the touch interface. If you have a touchscreen display and you’re running Windows 7, you need the aptly titled Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7.

Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 consists of three programs and games. The most interesting of them all has to be Microsoft Surface Collage -- a program that allows you to arrange photos from your Pictures library on a background canvas, add a few effects and then set the finished product as your desktop background.

Once loaded, your photos are displayed along the bottom of the screen -- swipe with your fingers to navigate through them all. Drag photos on to the canvas with your finger, then use two fingers to rotate, resize and place the photo on the canvas. Add more photos as you see fit – tap a photo to bring it to the front of the pile, or tap and hold to send it to the bottom, allowing you to rearrange photos on top of each other.

You can also set a canvas style, color and choose a frame effect for your photos. The finished result can be saved as a JPEG image or used as your new desktop background.

Also of interest is Microsoft Surface Globe, a tool that lets you navigate a 2D or 3D Bing map of the world using your touch-enabled display -- it’s simple to operate and demonstrates another practical use for your touchscreen.

Of less practical use is a free screensaver -- Microsoft Surface Lagoon -- and three games, Blackboard, Garden Pond and Rebound. They’re mildly diverting, but aside from teaching you fundamentals about touch-screen interfaces won’t revolutionise gaming.

Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 is available as a freeware download for PCs running Windows 7. A touch-screen display is required to use the programs.
Mobile payments are coming to Europe

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 6:12pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Credit and debit cards haven’t evolved much since their introduction. The principle behind any payment card is the same now as it was 50 years ago. You pay with a plastic card, which is the opposite of technology evolution. It’s something that’s a given in our lives: we can’t live without one. But can we?

The residents of the old Continent, Europe, are still reluctant to let go of cash, as 57 percent of all purchases are still paid the old fashioned way. Credit cards can’t change that, and it looks like nothing can that’s already on the market. The solution to this problem? An entirely new technology, near field communications.

NFC a new standard that’s been introduced in smartphones. According to Google, 1 million NFC Android phones ship every week. The principle behind it is simple: touch the phones together and then exchange data. It’s that simple and a feature that’s likely to make our lives easier. NFC also has another trick up its sleeve: paying with your phone. You touch the back of the phone to a designated spot in the shop and that’s it, you’re done. Credit cards can be kept at home.

A program like Google Wallet is required to make this possible, so the interest it stirs from cell phone operators is inevitable. Europe has recently become more interested in NFC, but it’s something that I expect to take off very fast around the old Continent.

Deutsche Telekom partners with MasterCard

The credit card company MasterCard and German carrier Deutsche Telekom (Europe’s second largest carrier) announced on July 2 that they’ve partnered up. The purpose: to introduce mobile payments. Deutsche Telekom is German, so you may ask why this is relevant to Europeans.

Deutsche Telekom is the parent company of T-Mobile, which is a carrier in 11 European countries, as well as the United States, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. This has even deeper implications; as T-Mobile also controls other carriers as well, operating in Southwest Europe.

Deutsche Telekom's partnership with MasterCard has an effect on tens of carriers in Europe and the benefit of NFC payments could be extended to all the subsidiary companies in its control. The coverage they have and the partnership will only bring benefits to the German carrier.

This is great news for fellow Europeans that have expected NFC to increase its popularity in Europe. Popularity is crucial for NFC adoption, as it’s up to the store owners to add mobile payment.

Deutsche Telekom wants Google as a Partner

More good news comes today from Thomas Kiessling, which is Deutsche Telekom’s head of innovation. In an interview he acknowledged that Deutsche Telekom is talking to Google, credit card companies and banks to gain partners for its new mobile payment system.

Kiessling says that he’s confident in that only a few mobile payment systems (like Google Wallet) will survive the market’s test, despite banks and software company efforts to introduce their own. Kiessling is indeed very smart, making complete sense.

People always go for the most popular and well-known products and an overly saturated market will only send the unpopular ones into anonymity. Deutsche Telekom’s desire to partner with Google is a strategic move as Google Wallet is known mobile payment software and Google’s name carries a lot of weight for anyone that has ever used a computer.

About 93 million people use Deutsche Telekom, so market share is relevant enough to justify its own mobile payment program. Fifty-seven percent payments in cash would mean, through a very rough calculus, that at least 50 million of its users are targeted by the carrier to use mobile payments. This is a big number to start with and it can only fuel the popularity of NFC in mobile phones and the mobile wallet’s popularity as well.

NFC adoption also means an increase in revenues from processing payments, which according to the same Thomas Kiessling, is bound to increase from 11 to 13 billion Euro by 2016. Only a foul would say no today to mobile payments.

Good News for Europeans, But What’s the Catch?

Like always, there is a catch with good news that comes these days. Deutsche Telekom might have made its users very happy with recent announcements, but that also involves a secondary cost.

If you want to pay with your phone, you need one that supports NFC, which means getting a fairly new model. Along with paying with your phone, you’ll most likely pay with your new phone.

Technology always comes at a cost and this is the price to pay to revolutionize the way we pay. Finally, you can leave your credit card and cash at home.

Photo Credit: Slavoljub Pantelic/Shutterstock
ShareMeNot protects your privacy from prying social networks

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 5:49pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Most people who have used the Internet for any length of time are only too aware that websites are able to track their online activities by using cookies. This information is incredibly useful to advertisers, but there are steps you can take to help protect yourself. With the ever increasing popularity of social networks there is a new breed of tracking in the form of Like buttons -- and this is something that ShareMeNot can tackle.

There are very few Internet users who do not have a Facebook account, but there are numerous other social networks such as Google+, LinkedIn and many more. Many of these have their own site integration buttons that you have no doubt seen adorning the pages of many sites you visit -- they will give visitors the options of "Liking the current page on Facebook, or sharing it via some other means.

This in itself sounds useful, but the truth of the matter is that even before you click one of these buttons, it is likely that the various social networks know where you are online. This is where ShareMeNot comes into play. This is an extension that is available for Chrome and Firefox and it effectively blocks the functionality of these social networking buttons unless you explicitly choose to use them.

Being placed in control over how social networks make use of information they are able to gather about you is something that is out of your hands to some extent, but it is possible to limit what information they have access to. ShareMeNot is not just a tool for the paranoid – it is useful for anyone that has privacy concerns. As there are undoubtedly going to be sites for which you do not mind sharing information, you have the option of setting up a list of exceptions, but with the extension installed the default setting ensures that data is not shared – unless you say otherwise.

You can find out more and download yourself a copy of the browser extension by paying a visit to the ShareMeNot for Chrome or ShareMeNot for Firefox review pages.

Photo Credit: Lakhesis/Shutterstock
Is $40 too much to pay for Windows 8?

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 5:28pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

I've wondered for months exactly how much Microsoft would charge consumers to upgrade to its newest operating system. Starting with Snow Leopard, Apple slashed 100 bucks off the price of OS X, and the next version -- soon-to-release Mountain Lion costs even less: $19.99. With Apple so lowering the price-to-value proposition, could Microsoft continue to charge so much?

Yesterday, the software giant answered by offering, for a limited time, a seemingly attractive upgrade price for Windows 8 Professional: $39.99. The pricing, available only through January 31 from when Windows 8 is available, applies to all versions back to XP -- and it's a big discount: Windows 7 Home Edition upgrade lists for $119.99 and Pro for $199.99, although street prices tend to be $30 and $50 less, respectively. Still, Apple has set a major operating's value much lower and the benefit to customers much higher.

Microsoft's $39.99 price is only available direct, and users must make their own backup image or they can purchase a CD for $15 more. Anyone looking for a DVD, at retail, can expect to pay $69.99. What seems to be missing: Multiple upgrades for one purchase. I say seems since Microsoft may announce this option later -- or not. Mac users get it today. They pay 30 bucks for OS X Lion and install it on multiple Macs. Presumably, as has been standard licensing practice in the past, Microsoft will offer one-to-one upgrades: so it's $40 for each PC.

From one perspective, Microsoft's launch upgrade price is a magnanimous discount: $40 for Pro instead of $200 and available even to XP users. Apple still offers more for less, although users pay a premium price for hardware compared to Windows PCs. From that perspective, Microsoft provides lots of value, because the hardware costs can be so much less to begin with.

Measuring Value

But how much of the value is real? That's versus public relations. If you're running XP on a 5 year-old PC are you really going to upgrade to Windows 8, which is better optimized for touchscreen than your mouse and keyboard?

BetaNews reader Sourabh Mokhasi expresses my concern: "Windows 8 will run crappy slow on PC's designed to run Windows XP. What's the use of offering an upgrade to Windows XP users?" Craig Simpson: "A 10 year-old machine can't run Windows 8. I tried installing Windows 8 on a Pentium 4 with 2GB of RAM to see if it would work and it completly refused to install".

Additionally, users won't bring the same things with them when upgrading. Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc explains:

You will be able to upgrade from any consumer edition of Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro and bring everything along which includes your Windows settings, personal files, and apps. If you are upgrading from Windows Vista, you will be able to bring along your Windows settings and personal files, and if you are upgrading from Windows XP you will only be able to bring along your personal files. Of course, if you want to start fresh, you can choose to bring nothing along. Or if you prefer to format your hard drive as part of your upgrade experience, you can do so as long as you boot from media and then format your hard drive from within the setup experience for installing Windows 8, not prior to it.

Did you catch that? Consumer edition. The offer isn't available to everyone. Unless there's clarification from Microsoft otherwise, you can't go from Pro to Pro for that pricing. I ask again: Is there real value here or some smart public relations maneuvering?

Something else: Value to Microsoft is different for its OEM partners. Manufacturers prep swank new Ultrabooks and tablets for holiday release. They're looking to recharge PC sales. Then suddenly Microsoft plays the Grinch, by offering consumers running Home editions a cheap upgrade to Pro. They can keep their older PCs and move up. Of course, the real value proposition will be touch and some users will upgrade to get it.

What I keep wondering: What is the Microsoft leadership thinking? Does the temporary pricing respond to Apple, which will release Mountain Lion this month? Is there growing lack of confidence PC users will upgrade to Windows 8.

BetaNews reader John Mann proposes plausible answers:

Wow. I see a number of possible reasons.

1. Competition has eroded Window's monopoly to the point where it can't charge $99 for an upgrade without losing market share.

2. Microsoft thinks it can make up for the lost revenue with new revenue from the Metro Store and SkyDrive.

3. Microsoft wants people to get hooked on Metro so they'll be more open to Surface and Phone.

Think of it this way. For your typical user, Windows 8 isn't all that different from Windows 7 with the one exception of Metro. Microsoft is essentially selling "Metro for Windows" for $40 under the banner of Windows 8 to make it more attractive.

Readers React

Perhaps the answer to those questions are less important than the one to mine: Is $39.99 too much for you? Or is it just right?

Some of you already have commented about your intentions. Shawn Plaugher: "No Thank You!"

"Even if it were free, I see only downside in upgrading from Win 7 to 8 -- it's an absolute UI mess", markbyrn comments. Yeah, Metro isn't winning popularity contests.

Microsoft will offer a limited-time $39.99 upgrade to Windows 8 Pro from older consumer versions, including XP. Will you upgrade for this price?

"I would not upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 8, even if the upgrade was free, and I really do mean that seriously", Aires_OFFICIAL writes. "In my opinion this is a real-time downgrade. I don't care what it's got under the hood' I don't care how tight the code is; I don't care how many man hours have been put into this; I don't care how modern and up to date it is. I care about how it functions and its ease of use. For a PC -- major fail. Big. Huge".

Microsoft should worry, if more loyalists are like Simpson:

I am a devout apple hater. If I was given an icrappy, I would throw it in the bin or flush it down the toilet. I have always been a Microsoft user. But for the life of me I have no idea why they are doing what they are doing with Windows 8. It's stupid and can't be used properly with a kb and mouse. Heck even with touch it doesn't really work properly.

It is a jack of all trades and a master of none. yes there is some nice features in windows 8 but they are completly overshadowed by the stupid and absurdly difficult user experience.

The majority of comments we have in hand are negative, which is one reason I want to explicitly ask about pricing and get reaction to it. So I'll ask in a couple different ways, and you can chose question(s) to answer: Is $39.99 too much for you to pay for Windows 8 Professional upgrade? Will you upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99? What price would you pay to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro? Please answer in comments below and take our poll above.
Do you miss the C Prompt? Try Take Command 14

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 1:50pm CEST par Mike Williams

JP Software has released Take Command 14, a powerful alternative to the regular Windows command prompt. And now it’s more powerful still, courtesy of some useful additions to the program’s scripting language.

The new TPIPE command, for instance, allows you to filter, convert and process text in a variety of ways. You can convert files to and from Unicode, for instance; convert the end-of-line type; use Grep-type line-based filters, and run a search and replace filter on a file.

And just one TPIPE switch – /simple – probably adds more filtering functionality than we’ve ever seen in a single program. There are options to convert a file to upper or lower case, or toggle case entirely; you can remove text from the beginning or end of lines; you’re able to UUEncode or UUDecode, MIME Encode or Decode a file; strip the email headers from a file; convert PDF documents and Excel spreadsheets to text, and much more (80 options in total).

Another highlight is the ability to create a new Windows desktop from the command line, or a script, and switch to it later.

The new RESOLUTION command allows you to set the resolution, color depth and refresh rate of a particular display.

If you enter a command such as COPY without any arguments then Take Command will now display the relevant command dialog, a welcome usability improvement.

And there are plenty of enhancements behind the scenes, too, with a major reworking of the Internet code, and the IDE editor being updated to a new version of Scintilla.

The only bad news we could find is that JP Software aren’t going to be following their usual pattern of releasing a cut-down freebie version of the latest build: there’s not going to be a TCC/LE 14.0.

If you’re on a budget, then, the best option is to download TCC/LE 13.0, which remains powerful for a free command line alternative.

The full Take Command 14.0 build offers considerably more functionality, though, more than enough to justify its $99.95 price tag. And if you’re interested then the 30-day trial build gives you plenty of time to explore this for yourself.

Photo Credit: Alberto Zornetta/Shutterstock
My first great smartphone: Jailbroken iPhone 3G

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 2:43am CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Fifth in a series. To commemorate iPhone's fifth-anniversary, we present several stories looking at its debut and colorful history -- so far.

I remember my first smartphone -- Sony Ericsson W950i. It had no camera, but a touchscreen (you probably don't know how horrible touchscreens were before the iPhone) and ran Symbian 9.1. I got all this and a 2.6-inch display. It sounded great at the time, but wasn't enough. Before iPhone, I didn't think much of smartphones. They didn't feel special, with the OS being a big reason why. I didn't much like Symbian, and Windows Mobile was a miniaturized Windows, which didn't do it any favors.

Then, all of a sudden, there were rumors about Apple making a smartphone. I laughed so hard at the idea of an Apple smartphone that you can't even imagine. Having already had a smartphone, the idea of a phone with one button and just a screen was hard to grasp. What a joke.

But then Apple cofounder Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in January 2007. It took me about half an hour watching his presentation video to be convinced this was a great idea, and by the end I was hooked by the whole concept. It looked so good in a market that was saturated with the same phones, just different numbers. The iPhone was a breath of fresh air for me and it's what really got me into smartphones.

But I live in Europe, where iPhone wasn't initially available at launch, so I had to wait to get one. The price was so appealing that many people here didn't wait. They purchased AT&T models, which they jailbroke and unlocked. The true potential was revealed.

Then, a few years back I joined the club and got an iPhone 3G. It wasn't very fond of my carrier's network at the time, so I had to jailbreak and unlock it. The experience was amazing and I saw the potential in the phone's software. I started with iOS 3.1.3, so I didn't have to face copy-and-paste issues of the first-generation of iOS. With iOS 3.1.3 the iPhone was at its true peak.

I had a bit of a hard time with the keyboard at first, then adapted real quick. I loved the Google Maps app, which entertained me calculating distances on foot but proved quite useful in finding where a restaurant or bar was actually located.

I enjoyed the way the messages were arranged and displayed, and I actually found that the search feature was something that's useful when you want to search for a specific message and can't find it. Simple things, but they make life a lot easier.

iPhone presented the very first good mobile browsing, and I actually enjoyed surfing the web with it. Safari may not be the best now, but back then there was no competition.

By jailbreaking, my iPhone was a completely different beast. Software like SBSettings made my life a lot easier, and I admire the jailbreaking community for that. I'd also like to say thanks. Many jobs were created to design apps for this phone, just imagine that. Who would have guessed it back then?

There were problems with it as well. iPhone was slow (I could write a whole article before Safari would open and then load a page) and that accentuated with iOS 4. It had a very crappy camera (the app had just a button and no other functionality than taking a picture) as well, which was just embarrassing to use. The back scratched way too easily, but surprisingly the screen still holds up well even today.

The weirdest thing is that I still have my iPhone 3G, and it's a great reminder of how much of an amazing moment it gave me. It's the phone that created the smartphone market as we know it today.

I'm going to smash mine to bits one day, as it's awfully slow. But even slow as it is, it's still my iPhone.

Photo Credit: Marcel030NL
Microsoft ad and search biz is a $6.2B failure

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 12:23am CEST par Joe Wilcox

Worthless. That's the description that best describes Microsoft's ambitious aQuantive acquisition, announced in May 2007. Today, after the market closed, the software giant announced a "non-tax-deductible income statement charge" of $6.2 billion booked last year. Fiscal 2012 closed June 30, so the timing has a deliberateness.

Microsoft probably should have told everyone before the quarter's close. Doing so today, during a big holiday week (Fourth of the July), mitigates the negative news. Lots of people are on vacation.

Microsoft paid $6.3 billion for aQuantive five years ago. When announced, the all-cash purchase worked out to a premium $66.50 a share; aQuantive closed at $35.87 the day before the deal was public. The acquisition was then, and still now, highly unusual for Microsoft, because of the exceptionally high price paid (Skype, at $8.5 billion is the only one larger). The online advertising agency was supposed to lift the sagging Online Services Business, for which there is no hope. The division has consistently lost money since fiscal 2006.

Microsoft acquired three aQuantive assets, not all of them kept: Atlas, Avenue A | Razorfish and DRIVEpm. Atlas offered a broad range of tools for agencies, brand marketers, direct response marketers and publishers -- as well as custom research, search campaign and site optimization tools. Avenue A | Razorfish was a well-known rich media advertising campaign and professional services provider that accounted for the bulk of aQuantive revenues. DRIVEpm offered tools connecting publishers to advertisers.

I've long wondered why Microsoft bought aQuantive, although Google-chasing is top reason. Like so much else that's wrong about the Online Services Business, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sought to check Google. A month earlier, the search giant announced plans to buy DoubleClick. Strangely, Microsoft paid more than twice as much as Google ($3.1 billion) and got more than it wanted.

Like I said, Razorfish brought in the bulk of aQuantive's cash but wasn't the assets Microsoft wanted (or could use). In June 2004, aQuantive bought SBI.Razorfish for $160 million. The renamed Avenue A/Razorfish provided valuable ancillary advertising services that were important to aQuantive but not to Microsoft, which also paid much more for the whole company because of the one part's value.

Razorfish's luster turned dull under Microsoft ownership. Despite being one of the world's largest interactive advertising agencies, Avenue A/Razorfish didn't fit with Microsoft's objectives for online ad agency aQuantive. Less than two years after the aQuantive deal closed, Microsoft sold Avenue A/Razorfish to Publicis Groupe.

Is it any wonder that with the brain cut from the body, Microsoft had to turn off life support. But whoa, what a hospital bill! The measure isn't the $6.2 billion write-off compared to $6.3 cash acquisition but the costs of maintaining aQuantive operations and the artery bleeding Online Services Group -- not for 5 years but seven.

"While the aQuantive acquisition continues to provide tools for Microsoft’s online advertising efforts, the acquisition did not accelerate growth to the degree anticipated, contributing to the write down", according to a Microsoft statement. You think?

The charge relates to an assessment of goodwill, which for OSB at the end of fiscal third quarter was $6.43 billion, and largely derives from the aQuantive acquisition.

Online Services Business generated $2.18 billion in revenue for the first three fiscal quarters, losing $1.45 billion. It's a never-ending trend. Microsoft boasts about Bing search share market gains, but bottom line: OSB is the ugliest beast in the dog and pony show.

So far, market reaction is tepid. Microsoft shares are down less than 1 percent of their $30.56. Perhaps shareholders don't care, since the company claims no material impact, or too many are vacationing this week.

The questions to ask: Should Microsoft exit the search and advertising business, and is the write-down preparation for a sale? Say, remember those Facebook buying Bing rumors from a few weeks back? I don't have answers, but surely sell-off is one reason to prune the tree.

Photo Credit: ARENA Creative/Shutterstock