What's New in Microsoft Land: 12th - 16th November 2007

Microsoft is growing bigger and bigger by the hour and Monday’s announcement that it opened the new international headquarters for Microsoft Research, Building 99, confirms it.

It is said to be the first of seven new buildings on the West Campus, four of which are to be occupied by the company’s Entertainment and Devices Division. The West Campus will offer employees convenient amenities such as a post office, a mini-spa, a bookstore and 12 food venues.

"Continuing to build a world-class campus in Redmond is critical to a company like Microsoft that has innovative people as its greatest asset," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft and the executive overseeing the expansion. "The physical campus growth the company announced today underlines our investment in Redmond and the greater Puget Sound area and shows our commitment to our future."

Microsoft began a three year expansion project back in February 2006 and the rate at which it is growing it had to admit that that was not enough. It announced that it will probably be building outside the project some additional constructions on the former Safeco Corp. headquarters that it acquired in 2006 and that it started site planning for the addition of new buildings on the land it acquired from Nintendo of America Inc. not so long ago this year.

"Microsoft continues to grow at a healthy pace, and this growth means strengthening our physical infrastructures," said Brad Smith, senior vice president at Microsoft, on Monday. "We are committed to doing our part to help improve transportation on SR 520 with the goal of facilitating an easier commute for all Puget Sound residents."

On Tuesday Microsoft Corp. and Kyocera Mita Corp. announced the signing of a patent cross-licensing agreement to allow each other access to its respective patent portfolio. This is just the latest in a long line of such agreements that Microsoft has closed since the beginning of its IP licensing program, back in December 2003. More than 200 such deals were struck and the Redmond based company still strives to develop programs that will allow its customers, partners and competitors to access its IP portfolio.

Wednesday brought about the release of the Office Accounting Express 2008, the alternative to the old shoebox-and-paper method of accounting that most of the 20 million small businesses in the US still use to this very day. Believe it or not (and you will believe it because it’s true), the new suite has big shoes to fill as its earlier 2007 version has won the "2007 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Award".

Thursday brought a new spin on the MSN Money – Morningstar investment data and editorial content collaboration as Microsoft decided to partner itself with the leading provider of independent investment research. The addition of Morningstar’s video content enables users to access up-to-date information, analysis and tools as well as helpful video segments from MSN editors.

Friday was somewhat funny in terms of the Apple – Microsoft rivalry as the two released major updates of their respective operating systems at the same time. Something like "Ha! Beat you! What? You’ve upgraded/improved too? Ah, let’s leave it at that than."

source: news.softpedia.com

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