Category Archives: Microsoft

The master moves to the cloud

Posted on September 7, 2010 by

Fact: data is moving en masse from PCs and enterprise networks to SaaS applications in the cloud. This trend will reshape the computing industry and change the very core of how we think about data and applications. For example, we … Continue reading →

Posted in cloud computing, Google, Microsoft, startups | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How IBM and Yahoo made Microsoft and Google

Posted on July 30, 2009 by

Here is the five-step recipe for creating the most important software companies of the past 30 years: Convince the market leader to give you something big they don’t see the value in for cheap Innovate, innovate, innovate Make a ton … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Microsoft | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Dogfooding vs. maintaining perspective

Posted on March 3, 2009 by

I’m all for dogfooding but not at the expense of deep competitive research. Sometimes you just have to live with your competitors’ products in order to understand them the way their customers do. I guess now that Bill Gates is … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Microsoft | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Adobe Engage 2008 To Launch Flex 3.0 and AIR

Posted on February 24, 2008 by

Tomorrow, at the invitation-only Engage 2008 event in SF Adobe will launch AIR and Flex 3.0. If you want to get a sense of what will be shown, here are the slides from the January pre-release tour. The event has … Continue reading →

Posted in Adobe, Facebook, Flex, Google, Microsoft, startups, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Polaris Digital Media Summit

Posted on February 3, 2008 by

I spent the last few days in Deer Valley, UT at the annual Polaris Venture Partners Digital Media Summit or PVPDMS08 as we casually refer to it (right). It’s a great event where the CEOs of our digital media companies mix … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Media, Google, Microsoft, startups, VC, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Emerging Ecosystems & Platforms

Posted on July 12, 2007 by

I’m at David Kirkpatrick’s iMeme conference in SF. It’s likely going to be a treat. The speakers and the attendees are of great caliber. As an ex-platform guy who’s recently spent a lot of time thinking about social infrastructure, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Media, Google, Microsoft, SaaS, startups, virtual worlds, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Enterprises, Everybody Wants Your Data

Posted on July 10, 2007 by

As storage gets cheaper, enterprises small and large accumulate more and more information. Finding the right information at the right time is becoming harder and harder. Information comes from many sources: email, IM, the Web and intranets, employee’s desktops, enterprise … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Microsoft, startups | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Google Targets Enterprises With Postini Acquisition

Posted on July 9, 2007 by

Another strategic move by Google–buying Postini for $625M. Postini has been a leader in the hosted email/IM security, archiving and compliance space. In addition to having well-thought out service offerings, the company has been able to operate on a big scale … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, Microsoft | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Playing Monopoly in the Advertising Space

Posted on May 18, 2007 by

So, let’s see: Microsoft buys aQuantive for $6B (2x price premium suggests some deal competition) Google buys DoubleClick for $3.1B (beats Microsoft) WPP buys 24/7 Media for $649M (Microsoft was also looking at it) Yahoo buys Right Media for $680M … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Google, Microsoft, Mobile, startups | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Perception and Reality: Why It Makes Sense For Google To Pay $3.1B For DoubleClick

Posted on April 13, 2007 by

Perception and reality sometimes have a twisted relationship. That’s particularly true in cases where being perceived as the leader makes you the leader. We tend to see these types of self-fulfilling prophecies in aggregator / market maker and other critical … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Google, Microsoft | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments