Microsoft

Microsoft plans to cut thousands of jobs with some roles expected to be eliminated in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports on Tuesday. The expected layoffs would be the latest in the U.S. technology sector, where companies including Amazon and Meta Platforms have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook.

Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has staked an ambitious trustbusting agenda on a case that may be difficult to win.

The lawsuit marks Lina Khan’s most significant effort to date to address tech industry consolidation, and it could upend Microsoft’s gaming ambitions.

Big Tech companies took a heavy beating last week, to the tune of more than $255 billion in lost market capitalization that’s helped make a bad year even worse for the once-beloved sector. The five tech giants that posted results have now lost a combined $3 trillion in market cap on the year, according to Dow Jones Market Data, showing that Big Tech isn’t immune to the macroeconomic storm sweeping up the broader stock market.

Netflix’s choice of Microsoft to help it get into the advertising business came as a bit of a surprise, but Wall Street analysts and ad-tech industry insiders had mostly positive reactions to the choice. Of course the devil is in the details and it remains to be seen just how the Netflix-Microsoft relationship plays out. It could be short term until Netflix buys or builds its own capabilities. Or the two could be in it for the long term. Could there be a marriage in the future? Some observers raised the possibility of Microsoft acquiring Netflix down the line.

The alliance announced Wednesday marks a major step toward Netflix’s first foray into advertising after steadfastly refusing to include commercials in its video streaming service since its inception 15 years ago.

Amid economic uncertainty and a possible looming recession, Microsoft — a major spender in the TV space — decided to sit out of this year’s upfronts and curtail its TV advertising budget. While media buyers and TV executives don’t anticipate other high-profile advertisers to follow suit, there’s concern that spending will be condensed due to uncertainty.

The technology giant has been telling TV networks and media buyers that it intends to bypass TV’s annual haggle for commercial inventory, according to four executives familiar with recent discussions. The company behind such products and services as Windows, LinkedIn, the Halo video games and Surface tablets instead favors taking its chances in what is known as TV’s “scatter” market, the purchase of ad time bought closer to run date.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Xandr from AT&T has officially closed, the company announced Monday, allowing the company to build up its ad business — particularly in connected television and linking it to search advertising. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but reports estimate the price at about $1 billion.

The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a group including the BBC, New York Times, Microsoft and Adobe, is working toward a common technical standard for media provenance to push back against the deluge of disinformation and deepfakes assaulting news. Their work on content authentication is swinging into high gear this winter.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated profound changes in television production workflows that broadcasters had been inching toward for years. Virtualization, the cloud, remote desktops and other technologies are paving the way to what Mike Kralec, deputy CTO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, calls, “more dynamic operating models.” These are bringing new flexibility and efficiency to broadcast operations, according to a white paper from Teradici, Avid and Microsoft. Download it here. 

The all-cash $68.7 billion purchase of the maker of Candy Crush and Call of Duty will turn Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming system, into one of the world’s largest video game companies. It will also help it compete with tech rivals such as Meta, formerly Facebook, in creating immersive virtual worlds for both work and play.

Microsoft became the latest company Friday to drop out of physically participating in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) amid a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the omicron variant.

When Microsoft on Tuesday announced it would acquire Xandr from AT&T, the companies gave little insight into the nuances of the deal, such as how the technology would integrate into the Microsoft Advertising, and who would spearhead the added services across the advertising business. While the details of the agreement remain unclear, Microsoft’s Rik van der Kooi shared a few insights into what advertisers can expect.

AT&T today said it’s agreed to sell its global programmatic advertising marketplace, Xandr to Microsoft.  It said the agreement builds on a decade-long relationship between Xandr, including its predecessor companies, and Microsoft in the sector.

On July 29, technologists will share perspectives on how long-term remote work and a growing focus on the cloud are creating opportunities for innovation in television workflows and facilities design. Speakers, (clockwise from left) will be Kevin Brosnan, solutions architect, Teradici; Tim Murphy, principal program manager for media and entertainment, Microsoft Azure; Ray Thompson, senior director, partner and industry marketing, Avid; Mike Kralec, VP technical operations and deputy CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group and moderator Glen Dickson, contributing editor, TVNewsCheck. Register to attend the webinar here.

NAB Deputy General Counsel Patrick McFadden discusses Microsoft’s promises to deploy TV white space devices even as Microsoft seeks to overturn recently adopted FCC rules allowing broadcasters to further the deployment of NextGen TV services and improve service to television viewers.

Microsoft has asked the FCC to reverse its decision, made under then-chairman Ajit Pai, to allow broadcaster signals from distributed transmission systems to go “significantly” beyond a station’s current authorized service area as those broadcasters roll out their NextGen TV broadcast transmission standard. It claims the “fatally unclear” decision was based on faulty assertions.

Microsoft is finally retiring Internet Explorer next year, after more than 25 years. The aging web browser has largely been unused by most consumers for years, but Microsoft is putting the final nail in the Internet Explorer coffin on June 15th, 2022, by retiring it in favor of Microsoft Edge.

Broadcasters are telling the FCC that using a popular method of determining signal reach could undo the good work the commission has done to help them better serve the public. It is the latest volley in the battle between broadcasters and computer companies — specifically Microsoft — over opening up the TV band for more unlicensed (so-called TV white spaces, or TVWS) broadband use.

Lawmakers on Friday debated an antitrust bill that would give news publishers collective bargaining power with online platforms like Facebook and Google, putting the spotlight on a proposal aimed at chipping away at the power of Big Tech. At a hearing held by the House antitrust subcommittee, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, emerged as a leading industry voice in favor of the law. He took a divergent path from his tech counterparts, pointing to an imbalance in power between publishers and tech platforms.

Microsoft is joining forces with two lobbying groups, the European Publishers Council and News Media Europe, along with two groups representing European newspaper and magazine publishers, which account for thousands of titles.

In largely prerecorded sessions, SMPTE’s annual conference this week has drawn about 1,300 attendees and had a focus on esports. Using the cloud for everyday production was another emphasis. Above, the Virtual Tour of Flanders esports event, produced by race organizer Flanders Classics, cycling simulator firm Bkool, cloud production vendor Kiswe and VRT’s sports channel Sporza, featured 13 professional riders racing a simulated course on stationary “roller” setups at home.

Walmart says it’s teaming up with Microsoft in a bid for TikTok. The retail giant confirmed to CNBC that it’s interested in buying the popular short-form video application. Walmart shares are up nearly 5% on the news.

Neither side wanted a big deal. But what began as talks about a small investment ballooned with interventions from President Trump.

In a statement Sunday, Microsoft said it and Chinese company ByteDance have provided notice of their intent to explore a deal resulting in Microsoft owning and operating the TikTok service in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The company said it expects those talks to conclude by Sept. 15.

The coronavirus pandemic has amped up the transition to cloud-based workflows as broadcasters have employed as many remote operations as possible. The next frontier: an acceleration of live production applications in the cloud. Above, an Amazon Web Services Outpost cloud server.

The billionaire announced Friday that he’s leaving the Microsoft board entirely as well as his seat on the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate headed by fellow billionaire Warren Buffett. Gates said he plans to dedicate more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Federal Trade Commission has launched a lookback at some of the smaller past acquisitions by some of the largest tech companies. The FTC said Tuesday it has issued “special orders” to Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, which require them to provide info on all acquisitions over the past decade (Jan. 1, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2019).

The CW, Tastemade, AccuWeather and Microsoft Advertising have joined Community, a video advertising marketplace launched by Xandr, AT&T’s advertising and analytics division. Other Community partners include WarnerMedia’s CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, B/R Live, Otter Media and Warner Bros. along with A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Cheddar, Bloomberg, Vudu, VICE, Hearst Magazines, Newsy, Philo, Tubi and Xumo.

Microsoft is telling the FCC that wireless internet providers have been able to boost their throughput tenfold using the TV white spaces Microsoft wants more of, and said the FCC should act on its proposal seeking tweaks to the current white spaces regime.