Microsoft buys Groove

I was surprised to see this press release:

Microsoft will make its growing business and technology bonds with Groove Networks permanent today as it announces plans to acquire the Beverly, Mass.-based provider of collaboration software for ad-hoc workgroups.

The acquisition will add Groove’s products to the lineup of Microsoft Office System products, servers and services, as well as bring the development talent and technology leadership of top Groove executives to Microsoft. Groove founder Ray Ozzie, the creator of IBM’s Lotus Notes, will become Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft, reporting to Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates.

I haven’t used Groove in a few years, mainly because I haven’t worked on any projects where I needed it. But it is genuinely cool and useful business software – kind of like BitTorrent meets Office. And the news that Ray Ozzie is going to Microsoft is big. He’s one of a handful of extraordinarily smart people in this industry, and he will make a difference at Microsoft.

Microsoft needs a Music Czar

Thomas Hawk points to this “personal note to Microsoft” from analyst Michael Gartenberg:

There’s no doubt that you must be frustrated. Really frustrated. After all, you were in digital music long before Apple. There were WMA players on the market long before iPod. In fact, Microsoft might have been dominant in digital music if it weren’t for that pesky little iPod thing (along with iTunes). Worse, Apple introduces a flash player years after anyone else, actually removes features and then has customers waiting 2-4 weeks to get one. Gladly waiting I might add and ignoring all those other devices your partners have brought to market. Let’s face it, you have all the tools to respond but at the moment, you seem to lack the leadership to tie it all together. You need to find someone to do for digital music what Martin Taylor is doing for Linux. You needs a master strategist that can deliver what folks like Brad Silverberg and Brad Chase did for Windows and Yusuf Mehdi did for IE back in the last century. In short, you need a digital music czar.

I would apply for this job in a heartbeat!

Will new Microsoft add-ons trigger new antitrust charges? No.

In a comment on another post , Thomas Brock asks:

So… Will these additions to AV services, the anti-spyware services, the media playsforsure services and the internet and desktop search services add to the monopoly charges?

Short answer: No. Everything Microsoft does with Windows has to be cleared by the Department of Justice. That was one of the terms of the original antitrust settlement. Reasonable (and not-so-reasonable) people may disagree over how fair that settlement was, but the DOJ holds the cards and they get veto power over lots of decisions. You can also be certain that any decision to add a feature has already been reviewed by a room full of lawyers.

My personal opinion is that security features belong in the operating system. Internet connectivity and Web browsing tools are an essential part of any computer operating system today. Forcing Microsoft to maintain an environment where users must purchase add-on products so that they can safely use core features of the operating system is just wrong.

Search capability belongs in the OS as well. In fact, it’s always been there; it just hasn’t been implemented well. If other people can do it better, more power to them. That’s been the model so far for alternative browsers, and it seems to be working just fine. Firefox has been downloaded 25 million times, mostly by people using Internet Explorer. There’s nothing in Windows that keeps me from downloading, installing, or using Firefox. This is a great example of a product that does a better job than Windows and is deservedly reaping success.

Update: Symantec’s CEO, John Thompson, seems to agree, according to these remarks from yesterday’s RSA conference, as published in the seattlepi.com Microsoft Blog:

On whether Symantec would raise antitrust objections over Microsoft’s decision to offer free anti-spyware protection to Windows users: “I’d rather fight Microsoft in the marketplace because we’re convinced we can whup ’em. So this is not about showing up in Washington or whining on someone’s doorstep about what Microsoft can or might do. To the extent that they violate the position of prominence that they have, be assured that we’ll be watching, but whining in Washington about press releases or pointing to left field by Bill and his team, I mean, of what value is that?”

Not to mention that the complaint would go nowhere.

How big is Microsoft?

Big. Really big. Really, really big. As this AP story makes clear:

Personal income, boosted by a large dividend payment from computer software giant Microsoft Corp., shot up by a record 3.7 percent in December. That helped to boost consumer spending during the all-important holiday season by 0.8 percent.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that the income gain would have been a smaller 0.6 percent in December without the one-time $3 per share dividend payment Microsoft made on Dec. 2. Even that reduced figure would have been an improvement over the 0.4 percent rise in personal incomes in November.

While it is highly unusual for a dividend payment from a single company to have such a major impact on incomes, Microsoft is one of the most widely held stocks in America. The size of the payment — $32 billion — rivaled the $38 billion the government paid out in federal income tax rebates in the summer of 2001.

Yow.

(Thanks to Jesse at Pandagon for pointing out this story.)