What is the next BIG thing for Microsoft?

At Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM) last week, company officials shared a few tidbits about Microsoft System Center. System Center encompasses a variety of system-management tools that Microsoft sells to IT professionals who want to manage their Windows — and Linux/Unix — clients, servers, hypervisors and more. System Center is one of a handful of server-side product families that Microsoft is planning to push more in its coming fiscal year. (The others: Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, the forthcoming Forefront Protection Suite, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010 and Office Communications Server 2010 — about which Microsoft has said very little to date.)

Microsoft officials mentioned in passing last week that System Center Online Desktop Manager (SCODM) is likely to be a big revenue generator for the company in the near-term. The Online Desktop Manager is one of Microsoft’s own hosted “Online” services that it is touting as a way for cash-strapped customers to save money. Microsoft’s pitch: By having Microsoft manage your users’ desktops and provide the anti-malware, desktop configuration, remote assistance and IT asset-management for them, IT pros won’t have to shell out for on-premise products and people to provide these services.

Microsoft SCODM, which is built on top of Silverlight, is in private testing with select customers now and is expected to be released in final form in 2010.

Beyond 2010 — but before search and online advertising move in any noticeable and serious way from being in the red, to in the black — what else is Ballmer betting on? Find out more at ZDnet.

Yahoo Got Binged By Microsoft

Yesterday I was wondering who got the better deal and according to Techcrunch, you need only look at the stock movements of Yahoo and Microsoft. Yahoo dipped 12.08% to $15.14, knocking $2.91 billion off their market cap. Microsoft gained 1.41% to $23.80, adding…$2.94 billion to their market cap.

So net/net about $30 million in new value was created yesterday by the market, All of that plus everything Yahoo lost went to Microsoft. Yahoo got Binged, to the tune of $2.9 Billion. Oops.

Read more at Techcrunch.com

Overview Of Microsoft Yahoo Deal: DEAL OVERVIEW

Microsoft + Yahoo Reach Deal On Search.

Who got a better deal? I think its 50/50 because Yahoo does not get cash and Microsoft does not take over. Today they struck a deal for a 10-year Internet-search partnership, ending a protracted dance and uniting the rivals against Google Inc.

Under the deal, Yahoo will make Microsoft’s Bing search engine the search provider on its Web sites, licensing its own search technology to Microsoft to integrate if it chooses. Yahoo will handle sales of search ads for both companies, using Microsoft’s search-advertising technology.

There is no large upfront payment from Microsoft. Instead, the agreement is a revenue-sharing pact, with Microsoft paying Yahoo 88% of the search revenue generated from its sites during the first five years of the agreement. Read more at Wall Street Journal.

WAVE and BING!

My eyes are firmly on the new Wave and Bing! Google Vs Microsoft! In the ‘real’ world, the saying goes that when two bulls fight the grass suffers. Well, in the ‘virtual’ world of the internet the ‘grass’ seems to benefit! I like Bing’s video searching results but I am used to Google’s results in general, so am not changing engines yet.

On the other hand, Google’s Wave has blown me away! And they haven’t even finished building it yet… I can’t wait for it because on-line collaboration can be way better than it is right now. The internet needs a revolution and this may be IT.

courtesy zdnet