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Microsoft Awarded 659 Patents in 2004

Microsoft was awarded 659 patents in 2004, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office records. The patents were granted for a range of items, including compilers, type fonts, printing business forms, wireless databases, using "direct marshaling" in a distributed component architecture, automating cell phone clocks, cleaning up databases, encrypting objects, streaming media, and delivering video on demand, among others. Microsoft's patent haul last year represents a 26 percent increase in the number of patents it received in 2003, when it was awarded 520 patents, but it is still far short of the 3,248 patents awarded to IBM, the organization awarded the most patents last year. According to USPTO records, Microsoft has been awarded 3,637 patents since 1976. It received 511 patents in 2002, 455 patents in 2001, and 356 patents in the year 2000.

Microsoft CFO Connors Quits, New Navision GM Named, Too

There have been some executive changes at Microsoft recently. Last week, John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer since 2000, announced his retirement from the company after 16 years. The 45-year-old CFO says he wants to spend more time with his family, church, and community. He has also taken a position with Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm located near Seattle. Microsoft will consider both internal and external candidates for Connors' replacement. And on Monday, Microsoft announced that Mogens Elsberg, formerly with IBM, has been named the new general manager for the Navision division of Microsoft Business Solutions. Elsberg was most recently the chief executive of Aston Business Solutions, a Microsoft partner. He replaces René Stockner as head of Microsoft Navision, which is based at the Microsoft Development Centre at Vedbaek, near Copenhagen.

SAP, Microsoft Deepen Integration with PDK for .NET

Microsoft and SAP, the ERP software maker it entertained thoughts of acquiring, have deepened their relationship with the integration of their respective technologies, including Visual Studio and the SAP NetWeaver, the companies announced last week. The new product that does this is called the Portal Development Kit for Microsoft .NET, and it basically works as a plug-in to the Visual Studio .NET 2003 development environment to enable customers to build content for SAP's Enterprise Portal using C#, Visual Basic .NET, or any other supported language. Specifically, the new PDK for .NET available in SAP's NetWeaver integration environment supports several key portal services, including user management, SAP Single Sign On, and specialized content. More than 40,000 SAP customers run their ERP software on Windows platforms, the companies say.

Oracle Closes PeopleSoft Deal, Lays Off 5,000 Employees

Having completed its acquisition of PeopleSoft, Oracle has laid off 5,000 employees from the merged company, which has approximately 55,000 employees. The layoffs were announced internally last Friday and were made public this week as Oracle formally announces its integration plans for the former PeopleSoft. The scuttlebutt on the street was that Oracle could let go as many as 6,000 employees from the PeopleSoft ranks, which were at over 12,000 employees before the hostile takeover.

This is a stunning number of cuts, and while it is hard to believe that this number is correct, it is. Having paid $10.3 billion for PeopleSoft, Oracle needs to get that money back, and plans to do so by cutting costs and getting the maintenance and license revenue streams from the PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards ERP suites. The deeper Oracle cuts, the more quickly it gets a return on its investment--provided it does not cut so deeply that it leaves customers disgruntled.

Even before it closed the acquisition, Oracle was moving executives in anticipation of the takeover. Just before the Christmas holidays, Dave Duffield, PeopleSoft's founder, resigned as chairman and CEO. Oracle fired four of PeopleSoft's executives, including co-presidents Phillip Wilmington and Kevin Parker, general counsel James Shaughnessy, and chief marketing officer Nanci Caldwell, on December 28, and put its own executives in charge of those posts, which they also hold at Oracle. Ronald Wohl, who heads development of the Oracle Applications unit, and Michael Rocha, who heads Oracle's support operations, have also been asked to step down.

Microsoft Partners with India Firm to Help with ERP Migrations, ISV Enablement

Sonata Software, an IT consulting and software services company headquartered in Bangalore, India, will be establishing a Microsoft Competency Center as part of a new partnership the companies announced this week. Sonata, which has a partnership with IBM, will be working with Microsoft to move companies in the consumer processed goods industry--particularly those running midrange servers and mainframes--to Microsoft's Axapta ERP system and the Microsoft CRM solution. The deal will also see Sonata providing other ISVs in the area with assistance in moving to the .NET development environment.

Microsoft Talks Up 'Smarter Retailing' and NRF Show in NYC

Microsoft, which launched its Smarter Retailing initiative last year, showcased several new customers at the big National Retail Federation conference in New York City last week. Among the new customers are computer retailer CompUSA, which moved its data warehouse to a 64-bit environment running Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition; Regal Entertainment Group, a large theater chain that picked Windows XP Embedded over Red Hat's Linux for major overhaul of its point-of-sale (POS) system; and Rite Aid, the drugstore chain that also picked Windows XP Embedded for its approximately 3,400 stores nationwide. Microsoft also beat the drum of partner interaction. "Since the program's launch, more than 25 retail industry partners have committed to Microsoft Smarter Retailing," says Dale Sleppy, Microsoft's retail-industry marketing manager for its small and mid-sized business, in a Q&A posted Monday.

Symbol Unveils the Lightweight and Configurable MC3000

Symbol Technologies is unveiling its new Symbol MC3000 handheld computer at the National Retail Federation's annual show in New York City this week. The MC3000 is a lightweight (weighs less than a pound) and rugged device that comes with features designed to minimize user fatigue in retail, inventory replenishment, and warehouse environments, including a variable keyboard (with the option of 28, 38, or 48 keys), a rotating barcode scanner turret, and a color display. The MC3000 supports 5250, 3270, and VT emulations, is equipped with Intel XScale processors (running at 312 MHz for monochrome displays, 520 MHz for color) and the Windows CE .NET Version 4.12 operating system (including the Windows CE 4.2 Core version for monochrome and CE 4.2 Professional for color). Additional options include a choice of lasers for scanning one- and two-dimensional barcodes, and either wireless (802.11) or batch communication.