REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 23, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer has decided to retire as CEO within the next 12 months, upon the completion of a process to choose his successor. In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company that empowers people for the activities they value most.

“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Ballmer said. “We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.”

The Board of Directors has appointed a special committee to direct the process. This committee is chaired by John Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, and includes Chairman of the Board Bill Gates, Chairman of the Audit Committee Chuck Noski and Chairman of the Compensation Committee Steve Luczo. The special committee is working with Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a leading executive recruiting firm, and will consider both external and internal candidates.

“The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company,” Thompson said. “As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company’s senior leadership team to chart the company’s course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry.”

“As a member of the succession planning committee, I’ll work closely with the other members of the board to identify a great new CEO,” said Gates. “We’re fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Aug. 21, 2013 — IDC has released its Mobile Phone Tracker report for the second quarter of 2013, in which it shows that Windows Phone is now the second most widely used operating system in the region.

August 20, 2013 There are more than 20 countries in Latin America where the Windows Phone range of devices is available.

The report shows that Windows Phone has been ranked second in Mexico for the second consecutive quarter. Furthermore, in the previous quarter, Windows Phone was also ranked second in both Colombia and Peru. It is important to highlight the fact that Colombia is one of the countries with the highest user preference ratings, with 25.6 percent of the market share. In other countries, such as Argentina, Chile and Brazil, Microsoft’s mobile platform has also grown in popularity, ranking in third place during the previous quarter.

There was 12 percent growth compared to the previous quarter, during which the platform was ranked fourth on the Latin American market.

“Reports show an important increase in the positioning of this operating system in Latin America. The market availability of new devices will be a factor in ensuring this trend endures over the next three months,” said Oliver Flores, regional manager for Mobile Phones at IDC Latin America.

Liliana González, director of the Windows Phone Division for Latin America, stated that “during this year’s Mobile World Congress, we set ourselves the goal of being the second most widely used mobile platform in Latin America by the end of 2013, and we are overjoyed to be able to announce that these reports show that we have achieved this five months before the end of the year.” She also commented that: “We will continue working alongside Nokia to offer more and more people in Latin America the holistic experience which Windows Phone has for them, in order to offer a more personalized smartphone which is the best for the Windows environment and the best hardware for people and companies.”

In Latin America, there are more than 20 countries where the Windows Phone range of devices is available, from low-end smartphones, such as the Nokia Lumia 520, to those with the most advanced features available on the market, such as the Nokia Lumia 920, but all of which offer the same experience, thanks to the Microsoft platform.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 2 1 , 2013 — Bing launched a free, national pilot program — Bing for Schools — today that gives districts across America the choice to have ad-free search in their schools. Bing for Schools offers K–12 public and private schools in the U.S. the choice to avoid the commercialization of student Web searches performed on the school network by removing all advertisements from search results. Bing is the first and only major search engine to give schools such a choice.

Bing for Schools also enhances privacy protections, sets strict filters to help block adult content and adds specialized learning features to promote digital literacy. Schools can request to be part of the initial Bing for Schools pilot program at http://www.bing.com/schools. Search is an important tool for students; a November 2012 Pew Poll study found that 94 percent of teachers believe their students are very likely to use a search engine in a typical assignment.

Several school districts across the U.S. have already signed up for the ad-free pilot program, including Los Angeles Unified School District (Calif.), Atlanta Public Schools, Fresno (Calif.) Unified School District and Detroit Country Day School.

“In the Los Angeles Unified School District, we strive to stay on top of new and innovative ways to leverage technology to promote high-quality teaching and learning,” said Ronald S. Chandler, chief information officer, Los Angeles Unified School District. “Collaborating with community partners like Microsoft is an essential part of bringing the best possible educational experience we can to our students. I look forward to supporting the Bing for Schools program, which is designed to promote digital literacy by helping to put new devices into the hands of students, teach them how to use them well, and facilitating learning in a safe and supportive environment.”

“Bing for Schools offers teachers the freedom to empower students through a 21st century learning environment,” said Aleigha Henderson-Rosser, director of Instructional Technology at Atlanta Public Schools. “This educational search engine adds an extra layer of security and provides safe search options for our students in an ad-free learning space.”

“As of today, we’ll be bringing ad-free, safer, privacy-enhanced Bing to over 800,000 students with Bing for Schools,” said Mike Nichols, chief marketing officer for Bing at Microsoft Corp.

Bing for Schools includes the following elements:

• Ad-free search. Upon activating Bing for Schools, Bing searches from within the school network will have three key enhancements: - Removal of all advertisements from Bing search results - Automatic strict filtering to help block adult content - Augmented privacy protections

• Earn Bing Rewards credits for schools. You can help the school of your choice earn credits toward Bing Rewards just by searching the Web from home or your mobile device. Bing Rewards allows you to choose a school to support and will aggregate the credits for everyone supporting that school. When 30,000 credits are accrued through Bing Rewards, Bing will send a Microsoft Surface RT tablet with Touch Cover directly to the school. The more people search, the more credits they earn for their schools. About 60 regular Bing Rewards users can earn a Surface RT each month for a school.

• Daily lesson plans based on the Bing daily homepage image. Bing is well-known for having a big, beautiful homepage image that changes daily and inspires visitors to explore their world. Bing for Schools makes it easier to incorporate digital literacy into the classroom by offering three learning activities every school day, targeted at kindergarten through fourth, fifth through eighth and ninth through 12th grades. The activities are free, aligned with Common Core State Standards and use the Bing homepage image of the day to pose a critical-thinking question that can be solved using search tools. In addition to being linked from the homepage image, Bing will keep a growing archive of the lessons on the Microsoft Partners in Learning site.

New GfK Roper p oll : Americans b elieve s chools s hould have the c hoice to m ake s earch a d- f ree

A new public GfK Roper poll shows that a large majority of Americans (84 percent) are unaware that students searching on classroom computers will see the same ads as they would on a public computer, and 79 percent of parents of children who search the Web in school agree that schools should have the choice to make their students’ searches ad-free.

The poll also indicated that nearly nine out of 10 (87 percent) agree that being able to effectively search for information on the Internet is an important skill for children to learn to be successful in today’s world, and 85 percent feel parents should be concerned about their children possibly seeing inappropriate content when searching online. Full survey results can be found here.

Get i nvolved

Early enrollment for Bing for Schools starts today; a limited number of schools will be accepted into the initial pilot. More information on Bing for Schools, including how to sign up for Bing Rewards and choose a school to support, is available at http://www.scroogled.com.

About the GfK Roper study

The random digit dialing telephone survey was conducted Aug. 16–18, 2013, by GfK’s Public Affairs & Corporate Communications division among a nationally representative sample of 1,006 adults ages 18 or older. Interviews were conducted with 753 respondents on landlines and 253 respondents on cellphones. The data were weighted on age, sex, education, race and geographic region. The margin of error on results based on the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

More Support for Bing for Schools

The announcement of Bing for Schools has received notice and praise from educators and community leaders.

“Providing ad-free, safer searches to the educational resources of the world for our teachers and students — it makes sense that it would come from our partners at Microsoft.”

— Jamilah Fraser, Fresno Unified School District

“Detroit Country Day School is excited to partner with Microsoft to launch Bing for Schools and provide our community an ad-free search zone while providing this additional layer of Internet search security to our content filtering systems already in place.”

— Susan Moran Murphy, Director of External Affairs, Detroit Country Day School

“In the Los Angeles Unified School District, we strive to stay on top of new and innovative ways to leverage technology to promote high-quality teaching and learning. Collaborating with community partners like Microsoft is an essential part of bringing the best possible educational experience we can to our students. I look forward to supporting the Bing for Schools program, which is designed to promote digital literacy by helping to put new devices into the hands of students, teach them how to use them well, and facilitating learning in a safe and supportive environment.”

— Ronald S. Chandler, Chief Information Officer, Los Angeles Unified School District

“As the use of technology in schools across the country continues to expand, I am pleased that the Bing for Schools initiative will help foster safe and invaluable learning experiences. With the removal of advertisements and inappropriate adult content from Internet searches, students can capture the material they need to excel in class. While we work to increase the number of schools and libraries with high-speed broadband access, the Bing program is an excellent opportunity to promote effective digital media engagement.” 

— Dan Domenech, Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators

“Family and Consumer Sciences teachers consider digital literacy and search skills key to the success of our students as they prepare for leadership roles in their families, careers and communities. Bing’s safe search tool, which is free of ads and protects students from exposure to bad influences present on the Internet, is a great resource for our educators. Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is honored to promote this great resource from Microsoft and encourage parents to sign up to earn points for free Surface tools for their schools.”

— Sandy Spavone, Executive Director, FCCLA

“National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) applauds Microsoft's strong commitment to protecting the privacy of children and providing a safe and secure platform to access educational content. All children, especially those living in communities and attending schools with limited broadband, must be given the opportunity to take advantage of innovative technology resources with the assistance of great corporate partners like Microsoft. Bing for Schools is a great example of assuring maximum educational outcomes and at the same time protecting children and families.”

— Greg Roberts, Executive Director, NABSE

“I personally enjoy using Microsoft Surface Pro with Windows 8 and Bing search. Our FBLA-PBL advisers are always looking for creative ways to use technology in the classroom to support their teaching methods. The effective use of technology also helps prepare our members to use that technology in their future business careers. The ad-free environment, along with the ability for students to search safely without accessing inappropriate content is an important classroom feature that I believe will be well-received by our members.”

— Jean Buckley, President/CEO, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) 

PARIS, France — Aug. 20, 2013 — This morning Gameloft, a leading global publisher of digital and social games, and Microsoft Corp. announced a full slate of Gameloft’s blockbuster titles for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, with 15 games slated over the next twelve months.

Beginning with the releases this Fall of "Asphalt 8: Airborne" and "Dungeon Hunter 4," Gameloft will launch a complete line-up of blockbusters across many genres simultaneously on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, taking advantage of the Windows platform’s multiple hardware configurations and focusing on exciting new features like cross-platform play between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices.

“Gameloft’s AAA-quality games are a perfect match for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8,” said Baudouin Corman, Gameloft's VP of Publishing, Americas. “Microsoft’s platforms provide a great environment for serious and deeply engaging games. Gameloft will bring its full support, taking advantage of the platforms’ specific features.”

“We’re thrilled to work with a gaming industry leader such as Gameloft to deliver top casual and core titles to our customers this holiday,” said Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft. “We strive to make Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 the best platform for gaming. With top gaming companies such as Gameloft investing in the platform, it is evident that there is no better time for game developers and gamers alike to choose Windows.”

The 15 new titles build on 10 Gameloft games released for Windows Phone 8 in 2013. Gameloft and Microsoft will showcase "Asphalt 8: Airborne," the hotly anticipated sequel to Gameloft’s legendary arcade racing series, on Windows 8 devices at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Aug. 21-25. Beyond "Asphalt 8: Airborne" and "Dungeon Hunter 4," gamers will also see the release of "Despicable Me: Minion Rush," "Total Conquest," "Six Guns" and "UNO[TM] & Friends" by the end of 2013, followed by an impressive lineup of the latest Gameloft titles in 2014.

About Microsoft:

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About Gameloft:

A leading global publisher of digital and social games, Gameloft has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft creates games for all digital platforms, including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets (including Apple iOS and Android devices), set-top boxes and connected TVs. Gameloft operates its own established franchises such as "Asphalt," "Real Football," "Modern Combat," and "N.O.V.A.: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance," and also partners with major rights holders including Universal, Illumination Entertainment, Disney, Marvel, Hasbro, FOX, Mattel and Ferrari.

Gameloft is present on all continents, distributes its games in over 100 countries and employs over 5,000 developers.

Gameloft is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (NYSE Euronext: GFT.PA, Bloomberg: GFT FP, Reuters: GLFT.PA). Gameloft’s sponsored Level 1 ADR (ticker: GLOFY) is traded OTC in the US.

LAGOS , N igeria — Aug. 12, 2013 — In recognition of International Youth Day, Microsoft Corp. Monday introduced the 4Afrika Scholarship program, as part of its 4Afrika Initiative, through which it will provide mentorship, leadership and technical training, certification, university-level education, and employment opportunities for promising African students. Mentorship will be provided by Microsoft employees from around the world, and employment opportunities will include internships and both part-time and full-time jobs within Microsoft, as well as with the company’s more than 10,000 partners across Africa.

Through the company’s 4Afrika Initiative and YouthSpark program, Microsoft has committed to helping millions of Africans get critical skills for entrepreneurship and employability. The 4Afrika Scholarship program is one way the company intends to meet that goal, by helping ensure that promising youth have access to the education, resources and skills they need to succeed, regardless of their financial situations. To help redress gender disparity in higher education in Africa, the company is actively encouraging young women to apply.

Microsoft also announced that in the coming year it will provide 4Afrika Scholarships to 1,000 youth to pursue associate degrees in computer science and business administration with the first participating higher-education institution, University of the People. The institution is an online university dedicated to the democratization of higher education, which is affiliated with the United Nations, the Clinton Global Initiative, New York University and the Yale Law School Information Society Project.

“Together with participating education institutions, Microsoft’s goal with the 4Afrika Scholarship program is to level the playing field for talented young African minds who might not otherwise have the resources, enabling them to get the education and skills they need to thrive in technology-related fields,” said Patrick Onwumere, director of youth enablement, Microsoft 4Afrika. “The 4Afrika Initiative was designed to help ensure that Africa can become globally competitive, and investing in our highly motivated youth is a critical step toward making that a reality.”

Students wanting to apply for these first 4Afrika Scholarships to attend University of the People must be at least 18 years old, have a high school diploma and be proficient in English, since all coursework is taught in English. They must also have access to the Internet to participate in the online classes. To help address the connectivity issue, the company is making working space available in its Microsoft Innovation Centers in Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda and Botswana for successful applicants near those locations. In addition, Microsoft is working with various partner hubs across Africa to make similar arrangements for students in other locations.

“University of the People works hard to ensure that university-level education is a possibility for the masses, and through the 4Afrika Scholarship program, Microsoft is helping us extend that possibility even further in Africa,” said Shai Reshef, president, University of the People. “We are proud to be working with Microsoft to help create amazing opportunities and open new doors for Africa’s youth.”

Applications for 4Afrika Scholarships to University of the People can be submitted online at http://www.uopeople.org/4afrika. The first 4Afrika Scholarship students will begin classes in November 2013. Further information about the 4Afrika Scholarship program is available at http://www.youth4afrika.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. , and TOKYO — Aug. 6 , 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company is deploying approximately 30,000 Windows 8 tablets as new sales devices for its sales personnel under close cooperation between Fujitsu Limited and Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. This is Japan’s largest and one of the world’s largest deployments of Windows 8 tablets this year. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance will start to conduct sales activities using the new tablets nationwide starting in September 2013.

As part of an effort to enhance its customer service experience, Meiji Yasuda reviewed its procedures and services from the ground up, based on customer feedback, and developed face-to-face services that provide useful information in easy-to-understand terms.

Leveraging the advantages offered by tablets, Meiji Yasuda will enhance communication with its customers by using videos and other content to explain its products. It will also aim to focus more resources on improving service and boosting its competitiveness by streamlining contract processing and helping eliminate the need for printed documentation while providing enhanced security.

Fujitsu, the partner leading the implementation of this deployment, selected Microsoft’s Windows 8 Pro enterprise operating system to develop a specialized Windows 8 tablet to improve customer service by digitizing procedures and providing beneficial information in an easily understandable format. With this development, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance will be the first Japanese life insurance company to adopt Windows 8 Pro.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug . 7 , 2013 — International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, and one of the world’s largest airline groups, has selected Microsoft Office 365 as the business communication solution for approximately 58,000 employees, enabling its workforce to collaborate virtually anytime, anywhere around the world.

“Giving our employees the tools and freedom to achieve more in their day-to-day activities was a key component in our decision to engage with Microsoft,” said Nigel Underwood, chief information officer, IAG. “Office 365 will allow employees to collaborate and achieve their work tasks regardless of the platform, product or device. This is an excellent example of IAG enabling change within the group to create a common IT platform for our airlines which will be more efficient and reduce our costs.”

IAG sought an all-encompassing solution for British Airways, Iberia, IAG Cargo and Avios that would provide a new way for employees to easily work together, as well as ensure access to the mission-critical enterprise tools a global airline group requires. The new Enterprise Agreement includes Office 365, with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Yammer, and provides the necessary features and security to help British Airways and Iberia transform their businesses and use cloud-based solutions.

In particular, a key part of the airline’s strategy for the future is better internal communication and collaboration through the use of social tools. Yammer brings together the companies’ employees inside a private and secured enterprise network that enables communication, collaboration and information sharing regardless of business unit or location. For British Airways and Iberia, this addresses major areas such as quickly understanding feedback from customers, responding swiftly to market changes, and keeping all levels of the organization engaged in delivering the group’s vision.

British Airways, Iberia and Vueling are part of International Airlines Group, which is the third-largest airline group in Europe and the sixth-largest in the world based on revenue with 420 aircraft flying to 230 destinations and carrying more than 69 million passengers each year.

More information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — July 30 , 2013 — Microsoft Corp. announced the winners and finalists of the Sales Achievement program at the 2013 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, the company’s annual event for industry partners, July 7–11 in Houston. The inaugural program recognizes global Microsoft partners for achieving exceptional sales results in fiscal year 2013.

“Partners that won this year’s Sales Achievement program have demonstrated extraordinary commitment in transforming their businesses to support customers worldwide with Microsoft technology,” said Chris Atkinson, vice president, Partner Growth & Enablement, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft. “As customers’ needs evolved, these partners made the right investments to grow their businesses with Microsoft and are now well-positioned to take advantage of new opportunities in fiscal year 2014 and beyond.”

Categories, winners and finalists appear below.

Enterprise Alliance

Winners: Capgemini and HP
Finalists: Dell, Dimension Data, Tata Consultancy Services

Enterprise ISV

Winner: Sitecore
Finalists: Apriso Corp., Redknee

Cloud Sales Licensing Solution Partner of the Year

Winner: SoftwareONE
Finalists: Atea, Insight Enterprises Inc., Softchoice

Licensing Solution Partner Corporate Accounts Global Partner of the Year

Winner: CDW
Finalists: Atea, Brasoftware, Otsuka

Transformational Licensing Solution Partner of the Year

Winner: Insight Enterprises Inc.
Finalists: Inmeta Crayon, SoftwareONE

OEM MNA

Winner: Lenovo
Finalists: ASUS, Dell, IBM

OEM Named

Winner: Tsinghua TongFang
Finalists: MCJ, Positivo, Vostok

Services – ESPG

Winner: Accenture/Avanade
Finalists: Capgemini, PlanB.

Services – Support

Winner: Epicor Software Corp.
Finalists: Greenway Medical Technologies, Uniadex, Wortell

SMB Distributors

Winner: Tech Data
Finalists: ALSO-Actebis, Daiwabo Information Systems, WestCoast

SMSP Solution Integrators

Winner: Champion
Finalists: Atea, DiData

About Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference

Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference provides Microsoft’s partner community with access to key marketing and business strategies, leadership, and information regarding specific customer solutions designed to help partners succeed in the marketplace. Along with informative learning opportunities covering sales, marketing, services and technology, the Worldwide Partner Conference is an ideal setting for partners to garner valuable knowledge from their peers and from Microsoft. More information can be found at http://www.digitalwpc.com and on the Partner Network home page at http://microsoftpartnernetwork.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

JOHANNESBURG — July 27, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. has launched a pilot project in the rural Limpopo province of South Africa that aims to deliver high-speed and affordable broadband to underserved communities using so-called “white spaces” technology.

The focus of the pilot will be to prove that TV white spaces can be used to meet the South African government’s goals of providing low-cost access for a majority of South Africans by 2020.

The pilot is a joint effort between Microsoft, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the University of Limpopo and local network builder Multisource. It will use TV white spaces and solar-powered base stations to provide low-cost wireless broadband access to five secondary schools in remote parts of the Limpopo province.

The project will use the University of Limpopo as a hub for a white space network deployment that will provide nearby schools in local communities with wireless connectivity. The project will also provide each of the five schools with Windows-based tablets, projectors, teacher laptops and training, education-related content, solar panels for device charging where there is no access to electricity, and other support.

Launching the pilot project at the start of the National Science Week in Polokwane, Mteto Nyati, managing director of Microsoft SA, said the project was initiated as part of the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, which aims to provide access, skills development and innovation opportunities to young people and entrepreneurs across the continent.

“Technology holds enormous potential for many aspects of development, but it is particularly key to areas such as education and healthcare. Broadband Internet access is therefore crucial to giving learners the 21st century skills they need to find jobs and participate in the economy,” Nyati said. “However, affordability remains a formidable barrier to broadband access in many parts of South Africa. Reducing the cost of broadband access means millions more South Africans will get online. This will create new opportunities for education, healthcare, commerce and the delivery of government services across the country.”

Microsoft white space pilots in Kenya and Tanzania have proven that white spaces technology is a viable solution for high-speed access in rural areas, even for those not attached to the national power grid.

Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom welcomed the launch of the pilot, saying global experience showed that access to broadband networks could provide greater economic, development and education opportunities in rural areas.

“We see a truly connected future in which all of South Africa’s major cities, towns and villages will be connected to affordable Internet service, thereby facilitating the country’s mass entry into the knowledge and information economy. We have set a medium-term target of delivering broadband to 80 percent of South African citizens by 2020,” Hanekom said.

Nyati said that through a combination of connected classrooms, devices and relevant services, “anywhere, anytime” learning could provide a range of benefits for students, teachers and administration of education, including the following:

• The development of 21st century skills for employability

• Improved education outcomes through better access to resources and learning opportunities

• Personalized learning for learners

• Teacher professional development opportunities and access to other teachers across South Africa and globally

• Improved administration and management of education

Microsoft’s efforts to increase access to affordable broadband services using white space technology have spanned the globe, including pilots completed or underway in Kenya, Tanzania, the U.K., Singapore and in the Philippines. In addition to these on-the-ground deployments, Microsoft is advocating for laws and regulations that promote more efficient and effective spectrum utilization as a member of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, a global organization launched in Singapore last month.

The goal of the 4Afrika Initiative is to accelerate economic development in Africa, and the value combination of access plus devices and services is core to Microsoft’s white space efforts in Africa. It is this combination that the company believes will create real value for the communities in which this technology is deployed.

“Microsoft has always been driven by the promise to help democratize access to technology for the world, and our work on white spaces is one way we’re delivering on that promise for people in even the most remote location,” said Paul Garnett, director at Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group. “We hope governments throughout the world will take note of the increasing momentum behind this technology and adopt forward-looking regulation that allows for more efficient use of spectrum and for the benefit of all.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — July 18, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced quarterly revenue of $19.90 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2013. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $6.07 billion, $4.97 billion, and $0.59 per share. These financial results include a $900 million charge, or a $0.07 per share impact, related to Surface RT inventory adjustments.

In addition, these financial results reflect the recognition of $782 million of previously deferred revenue related to the Office Upgrade Offer. All growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.

The following table reconciles these financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to non-GAAP financial results. We have provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company’s performance.

Downloads: Web

“While our fourth quarter results were impacted by the decline in the PC market, we continue to see strong demand for our enterprise and cloud offerings, resulting in a record unearned revenue balance this quarter. We also saw increasing consumer demand for services like Office 365, Outlook.com, Skype, and Xbox LIVE,” said Amy Hood, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “While we have work ahead of us, we are making the focused investments needed to deliver on long-term growth opportunities like cloud services.”

“We are working hard to deliver compelling new devices and high value experiences from Microsoft and our partners in the coming months, including new Windows 8.1 tablets and PCs,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Our new products and the strategic realignment we announced last week position us well for long-term success, as we focus our energy and resources on creating a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value the most.”

For Microsoft’s fiscal year 2013, the company’s revenue, operating income, and diluted earnings per share were $77.85 billion, $26.76 billion, and $2.58 per share. These financial results include a $900 million charge, or a $0.07 per share impact, related to Surface RT inventory adjustments. In addition, these financial results reflect the recognition of $540 million of previously deferred revenue related to the Windows Upgrade Offer, and a $733 million expense related to the European Commission fine.

Downloads: Web

Microsoft Business Division revenue grew 14% for the fourth quarter and 3% for the full year. Adjusting for the recognition of previously deferred revenue related to the Office Upgrade Offer, Microsoft Business Division non-GAAP revenue increased 2% for the fourth quarter. Office 365 is now on a $1.5 billion annual revenue run rate.

Server & Tools revenue grew 9% for the fourth quarter and 9% for the full year, driven by double-digit percentage revenue growth in SQL Server and System Center.

Windows Division revenue grew 6% for the fourth quarter and 5% for the full year. Excluding the impact of the prior year Windows Upgrade Offer revenue deferral, Windows Division non-GAAP revenue decreased 6% for the fourth quarter and 1% for the full year. In June, Microsoft released the public preview of Windows 8.1 which will be made available to OEMs in August.

Online Services Division revenue grew 9% for the fourth quarter and 12% for the full year, driven by an increase in revenue per search and volume. Bing organic U.S. search market share was 17.9% for the month of June 2013, up 230 basis points from the prior year period.

Entertainment and Devices Division grew 8% for the fourth quarter and 6% for the full year. During the quarter, transactional revenue within Xbox LIVE grew nearly 20%, and we unveiled our next-generation gaming and entertainment console, Xbox One.

“We continue to see strong demand for our enterprise products and services, with more and more customers making long-term commitments to the Microsoft platform,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “The growing adoption of our cloud services, including Office 365, Windows Azure and Dynamics CRM, continues to demonstrate our leadership position in the cloud.”

Operating Expense Outlook

Microsoft is revising operating expense guidance downward to $31.3 billion to $31.9 billion for the full fiscal year ending June 30, 2014.

Webcast Details

Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Frank Brod, chief accounting officer, and Chris Suh, general manager of Investor Relations, will host a conference call and webcast at 2:30 p.m. PDT (5:30 p.m. EDT) today to discuss details of the company’s performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The session may be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/investor/. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on July 18, 2014.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are “forward-looking statements” are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as:

• intense competition in all of Microsoft’s markets;

• execution and competitive risks associated with our devices and services strategy;

• significant investments in new products and services that may not be profitable;

• Microsoft’s continued ability to protect its intellectual property rights;

• claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights of others;

• the possibility of unauthorized disclosure of significant portions of Microsoft’s source code;

• cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products that could reduce revenue or lead to liability;

• improper disclosure of personal data that could result in liability and harm to Microsoft’s reputation;

• outages, data losses, and disruptions of our online services if we fail to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;

• government litigation and regulation that may limit how Microsoft designs and markets its products;

• Microsoft’s ability to attract and retain talented employees;

• delays in product development and related product release schedules;

• unfavorable changes in general economic or market conditions, disruption of our partner networks or sales channels, or the availability of credit that affect demand for Microsoft’s products and services or the value of our investment portfolio;

• adverse results in legal disputes;

• unanticipated tax liabilities;

• quality or supply problems in Microsoft’s consumer hardware or other vertically integrated hardware and software products;

• impairment of goodwill, fixed assets, inventory or amortizable intangible assets causing a charge to earnings;

• exposure to increased economic and regulatory uncertainties from operating a global business;

• geopolitical conditions, natural disaster, cyber-attack or other catastrophic events disrupting Microsoft’s business; and

• acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances that adversely affect the business.

For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft’s business, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of Microsoft’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft’s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft’s Investor Relations website at http://www.microsoft.com/investor/.

All information in this release is as of July 18, 2013. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations.

For more information, financial analysts and investors only:

Chris Suh, general manager, Investor Relations, (425) 706-4400

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news/. Web links, telephone numbers, and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information, as well as today’s 2:30 p.m. PDT conference call with investors and analysts, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/investor/.

REDMOND, Wash. — July 18, 2013 — Expanding Microsoft retail’s footprint across the country, the company announced it would launch new Microsoft Specialty Store locations in July and August:

• July 26: Mayfair (Wauwatosa, Wis.)

• Aug. 8: La Plaza Mall (McAllen, Texas)

Consumers will have the same excellent choice, value and service as the existing retail stores, as well as an engaging way to experience the best of Microsoft’s products and services. Moreover, Microsoft’s knowledgeable and friendly staff members will provide personalized information and service to suit customers’ needs. The specialty stores offer a curated assortment of best-in-class products, including Windows 8, Microsoft Surface RT and Pro, Windows Phone, Xbox, Kinect, and Microsoft Office 365.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

SAN JOSE, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash. — July 15, 2013 — The City of San Jose has selected Microsoft Office 365, Windows Azure and StorSimple to expand productivity of its more than 5,000 city employees, reduce operational costs, and deliver improved services to over 984,000 residents in the Capital of Silicon Valley.

“The combination of these services supports both our long-term technology strategy and the immediate needs of our employees and residents,” said Vijay Sammeta, San Jose chief information officer. “We turned to Office 365 for secured cloud productivity, which in turn will help us lower our total cost of ownership and support a more mobile and connected workforce of the future. The combination of Windows Azure and StorSimple will enable us to streamline storage infrastructure support, which enables our people to make the shift from basic backend operations to citizen engagement and service delivery.”

Michael Donlan, vice president of state and local government, Microsoft adds: "Ensuring the productivity of employees is critical when state and local governments are constatnly being asked to do more with less. Microsoft's cloud technologies not only support better collaboration and enhanced productivity, but also afford cities like San Jose the opportunity to do so in an environment that meets the security and privacy needs our U.S. government customers require."

The investment in new platforms was approved in the recent adoption of the annual city budget in June by the San Jose City Council.

“San Jose employees will have constant and consistent access to documents, email and information through the cloud, enabling them to do their job in a secured environment not restricted by their location,” said Sammeta. “In addition, employees also will be able to collaborate with each other in real time, improving efficiency and productivity, which will ultimately benefit the community at large.”

Sammeta cited the specific benefits of Office 365 that include:

• Universal access to data virtually anytime, anyplace, and on virtually any platform

• Capability for mobile communications and remote collaboration, including videoconferencing

• Consolidation of “big data” into a single platform

• Improved data visualization tools

• Seamless integration with third-party applications

• Automatic software updates, lowering support and management costs

• Easy staff adaptation to cloud-based platform

“Instead of purchasing different products for various business needs that may or may not integrate with one another, Office 365 provides us with a complete solution that works both for today’s needs and offers flexibility for addressing tomorrow’s,” Sammeta said. “By making this investment in technology, our staff will have up-to-date, enterprise-class cloud productivity tools, allowing us to catch up several product generations at once.”

As part of the overarching goal to expand productivity while enhancing citizen services, Sammeta and his staff recognized that streamlining backend IT operations would be key to maximizing the city’s investment and expected return.

By choosing Microsoft’s hybrid cloud storage solution of Windows Azure and StorSimple to support their unique compliance and backup requirements, the city’s selection of Microsoft’s enterprise cloud services ensures that San Jose IT employees can spend their time where it matters most.

“It comes down to the question of how we focus and leverage the talent of our employees,” said Sammeta. “Do we work on activities that don’t help us provide value directly to residents, or can we concentrate on where we can achieve real impact?

“Because of the cloud, we now have the opportunity to transform our IT business model so that we no longer have to deal with servers and storage, and instead our employees can take advantage of new tools and efficiency to benefit our broader community.”

Sammeta cited the specific benefits of Windows Azure and StorSimple that include:

• Major reduction in total costs for more than 70 TB of data

• One enterprise cloud solution across the city’s storage needs

• Seamless integration of cloud storage with local storage infrastructure

• Simplified processes for backup, restores and disaster recovery

• Minimal staff time required for backup and offsite cloud storage

The city’s transition to Microsoft’s enterprise cloud platform will begin this summer, and implementation throughout the organization is expected to take approximately six months.

“If you’re going to have a cloud strategy, you need to take a holistic look at your workloads,” Sammeta said. “We know we are only starting to scratch the surface of the benefits to come, which likely will be more than just cost savings for IT. I’m looking forward to opening the door to greater collaboration and removing technology obstacles to our ability to innovate.”

San Jose is joining a number of other municipalities and organizations focused on deploying Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity services that help meet their unique security, privacy and compliance requirements, including the City of San Francisco; Santa Clara County, California; the State of California; the City of Chicago; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; the State of Texas; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the City of Kansas City, Mo.; the City of Seattle; and the State of Washington.

More information about these services for business is available on the Office 365 and Windows Azure websites.

About the City of San Jose

Known as the Capital of Silicon Valley, San Jose is the nation’s tenth largest city and the largest city in Northern California with an ethnically diverse population of 984,000. San Jose was founded in 1777, once served as the state capital of California, and now encompasses 180 square miles. The City’s website is www.sanjoseca.gov. Facts about San José can be found here: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/780.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

In response to an article in the Guardian on July 11, Microsoft issued the following statement:

“We have clear principles which guide the response across our entire company to government demands for customer information for both law enforcement and national security issues. 

First , we take our commitments to our customers and to compliance with applicable law very seriously, so we provide customer data only in response to legal processes.  Second, our compliance team examines all demands very closely, and we reject them if we believe they aren’t valid.  Third, we only ever comply with orders about specific accounts or identifiers, and we would not respond to the kind of blanket orders discussed in the press over the past few weeks, as the volumes documented in our most recent disclosure clearly illustrate . To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive , Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product.

Finally when we upgrade or update products legal obligations may in some circumstances require that we maintain the ability to provide information in response to a law enforcement or national security request . There are aspects of this debate that we wish we were able to discuss more freely.  That’s why we’ve argued for additional transparency that would help everyone understand and debate these important issues.”

From: Steve Ballmer
To: Microsoft - All Employees
Date: July 11, 2013, 6 a.m.
Subject: One Microsoft

Today, we are announcing a far-reaching realignment of the company that will enable us to innovate with greater speed, efficiency and capability in a fast changing world.

Today’s announcement will enable us to execute even better on our strategy to deliver a family of devices and services that best empower people for the activities they value most and the enterprise extensions and services that are most valuable to business.

This company has always had a big vision — to help people realize their full potential. In the earliest days, it was by putting a PC on every desk and in every home. We’ve come farther than we could have imagined. The impact we have collectively made on the world is undeniable, and I am inspired when talented new hires say they chose Microsoft because they want to change the world — that’s what we do today, and that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.

Sharpening Our Strategy

About a year ago, we embarked on a new strategy to realize our vision, opening the devices and services chapter for Microsoft. We made important strides — launching Windows 8 and Surface, moving to continuous product cycles, bringing a consistent user interface to PCs, tablets, phones and Xbox — but we have much more to do.

Going forward, our strategy will focus on creating a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most.

We will do this by leveraging our strengths. We have powered devices for many years through Windows PCs and Xbox. We have delivered high-value experiences through Office and other apps. And, we have enabled enterprise value through products like Windows Server and Exchange. The form of delivery shifts to a broader set of devices and services versus packaged software. The frontier of high-value scenarios we enable will march outward, but we have strengths and proven capabilities on which we will draw.

This memo shows you how far we have developed our thinking on our strategy for high- value activities based on devices and services delivery.

Driving Our Success

It is also clear to me and our leadership that we must do an extraordinary job to succeed in this modern world. We have delivered many great products and had much success in market, but we all want more. That means better execution from product conceptualization and innovation right through to marketing and sales. It also means operational excellence in cloud services, datacenter operations, and manufacturing and supply chain that are essential in a devices and services world. To advance our strategy and execute more quickly, more efficiently, and with greater excellence we need to transform how we organize, how we plan and how we work.

Improving our performance has three big dimensions: focusing the whole company on a single strategy, improving our capability in all disciplines and engineering/technology areas, and working together with more collaboration and agility around our common goals.

This is a big undertaking. It touches nearly every piece of what we do and how we work. It changes our org structure, the way we collaborate, how we allocate resources, how we best empower our engineers and how we market.

One Strategy, One Microsoft

We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies. Although we will deliver multiple devices and services to execute and monetize the strategy, the single core strategy will drive us to set shared goals for everything we do. We will see our product line holistically, not as a set of islands. We will allocate resources and build devices and services that provide compelling, integrated experiences across the many screens in our lives, with maximum return to shareholders. All parts of the company will share and contribute to the success of core offerings, like Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, Surface, Office 365 and our EA offer, Bing, Skype, Dynamics, Azure and our servers. All parts of the company will contribute to activating high-value experiences for our customers.

We will reshape how we interact with our customers, developers and key innovation partners, delivering a more coherent message and family of product offerings. The evangelism and business development team will drive partners across our integrated strategy and its execution. Our marketing, advertising and all our customer interaction will be designed to reflect one company with integrated approaches to our consumer and business marketplaces.

How we organize our engineering efforts will also change to reflect this strategy. We will pull together disparate engineering efforts today into a coherent set of our high-value activities. This will enable us to deliver the most capability — and be most efficient in development and operations — with the greatest coherence to all our key customers. We will plan across the company, so we can better deliver compelling integrated devices and services for the high-value experiences and core technologies around which we organize. This new planning approach will look at both the short-term deliverables and long-term initiatives needed to meet the shipment cadences of both Microsoft and third-party devices and our services.

This means we will organize the company by function: Engineering (including supply chain and datacenters), Marketing, Business Development and Evangelism, Advanced Strategy and Research, Finance, HR, Legal, and COO (including field, support, commercial operations and IT). Each discipline will help drive our overall strategy. Each discipline will also be charged with improving our core capabilities in its area. We must improve in all aspects of the business.

There will be four engineering areas: OS, Apps, Cloud, and Devices. We will keep Dynamics separate as it continues to need special focus and represents significant opportunity. We will consolidate our technologies coherently into these groups pulling together some things that have been spread out in our current BG structure like cloud infrastructure, operating systems, mail, and identity, to name a few. Some of these changes will involve putting things together and others will involve repartitioning the work, but in all instances we will be more coherent for our users and developers. We have resolved many details of this org, but we still will have more work to do. Undoubtedly, as we involve more people there will be new issues and changes to our current thinking as well. Completing this process will take through the end of the calendar year as we figure things out and as we keep existing teams focused on current deliverables like Windows 8.1, Xbox One, Windows Phone, etc.

To improve engineering pace and quality, we will increase focus on our engineering systems, processes, and tools to improve the productivity of every engineer and to facilitate engineering collaboration and contribution across the company. Our engineering culture and new structure will enable more cross- group contribution, while maintaining confidentiality of some projects as needed. We will improve the approach we use to get MSR involved in product development, building on and enhancing our significant strengths there.

Organizing for Speed and Strategic Alignment

Specifically, our teams and their leaders will be these:

• Operating Systems Engineering Group. Terry Myerson will lead this group, and it will span all our OS work for console, to mobile device, to PC, to back-end systems. The core cloud services for the operating system will be in this group.

• Devices and Studios Engineering Group. Julie Larson-Green will lead this group and will have all hardware development and supply chain from the smallest to the largest devices we build. Julie will also take responsibility for our studios experiences including all games, music, video and other entertainment.

• Applications and Services Engineering Group. Qi Lu will lead broad applications and services core technologies in productivity, communication, search and other information categories.

• Cloud and Enterprise Engineering Group. Satya Nadella will lead development of our back-end technologies like datacenter, database and our specific technologies for enterprise IT scenarios and development tools. He will lead datacenter development, construction and operation.

• Dynamics. Kirill Tatarinov will continue to run Dynamics as is, but his product leaders will dotted line report to Qi Lu, his marketing leader will dotted line report to Tami Reller and his sales leader will dotted line report to the COO group.

• Advanced Strategy and Research Group. Eric Rudder will lead Research, Trustworthy Computing, teams focused on the intersection of technology and policy, and will drive our cross-company looks at key new technology trends.

• Marketing Group. Tami Reller will lead all marketing with the field relationship as is today. Mark Penn will take a broad view of marketing strategy and will lead with Tami the newly centralized advertising and media functions.

• COO. Kevin Turner will continue leading our worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and stores as well as IT, licensing and commercial operations.

• Business Development and Evangelism Group. Tony Bates will focus on key partnerships especially our innovation partners (OEMs, silicon vendors, key developers, Yahoo, Nokia, etc.) and our broad work on evangelism and developer outreach. DPE, Corporate Strategy and the business development efforts formerly in the BGs will become part of this new group. OEM will remain in SMSG with Kevin Turner with a dotted line to Tony who will work closely with Nick Parker on key OEM relationships.

• Finance Group. Amy Hood will centralize all product group finance organizations. SMSG finance, which is geographically diffuse, will report to Kevin Turner with a dotted line to Amy.

• Legal and Corporate Affairs Group. Brad Smith will continue as General Counsel with responsibility for the company's legal and corporate affairs and will map his team to the new organization.

• HR Group. Lisa Brummel will lead Human Resources and map her team to the new organization.

As part of these changes, Kurt DelBene will be retiring from Microsoft. Kurt has been a huge part of our success in evolving Office to be a great cloud service, and is a key member of my leadership team. I can’t express enough gratitude for the work he’s done for the company, and I will truly miss him. Kurt is a truly amazing leader and a special person. His contributions to Microsoft over 20+ years can inspire us all.

Craig Mundie will be stepping off the SLT to devote 100% of his time to a special project for me through the end of this calendar year. Beginning in 2014, Craig will continue as a consultant through his previously agreed upon departure date at the end of calendar 2014.

Also at this time, Rick Rashid will step away from running Microsoft Research and move into a new role driving core OS innovation in our operating systems group. Rick created MSR, the most amazing computer science research institution in the world. We owe him so much for that. He has a great team to assume the mantle, and it is exciting to have Rick return to his roots in OS to help propel us forward.

How We Work

The final piece of the puzzle is how we work together and what characteristics this new Microsoft must embody. There is a process element and a culture element to discuss.

Process wise, each major initiative of the company (product or high-value scenario) will have a team that spans groups to ensure we succeed against our goals. Our strategy will drive what initiatives we agree and commit to at my staff meetings. Most disciplines and product groups will have a core that delivers key technology or services and then a piece that lines up with the initiatives. Each major initiative will have a champion who will be a direct report to me or one of my direct reports. The champion will organize to drive a cross-company team for success, but my whole staff will have commitment to the initiative’s success. We will also have outgrowths on those major initiatives that may involve only a single product group. Certainly, succeeding with mobile devices, Windows, Office 365 and Azure will be foundational. Xbox and Bing will also be key future contributors to financial success. Our focus on high-value activities — serious fun, meetings, tasks, research, information assurance and IT/Dev workloads — also will get top-level championship.

Culturally, our core values don’t change, but how we express them and act day to day must evolve so we work together to win. The keys are the following:

Nimble

In a world of continuous services, the timeframe for product releases, customer interaction and competitive response is dramatically shorter. As a company, we need to make the right decisions, and make them more quickly, balancing all the customer and business imperatives. Each employee must be able to solve problems more quickly and with more real-time data than in the past.

Communicative

In the new, rapid-turn world, we need to communicate in ways that don’t just exchange information but drive agility, action, ownership and accountability.

Collaborative

Collaborative doesn’t just mean “easy to get along with.” Collaboration means the ability to coordinate effectively, within and among teams, to get results, build better products faster, and drive customer and shareholder value.

Decisive

As a global company with literally billions of diverse customers in an accelerating business environment, we must have a clear strategic direction but also empower employees closest to the customer to make decisions in service of the larger mission. This is tricky in a big company, but it is the key to higher levels of productivity, growth and customer satisfaction.

Motivated

In our industry, every day brings more challenges and more opportunities than the day before. But we have a unique chance to make the lives of billions of people better in fundamental ways. This should inspire all of us — those who love making products and services, those who love engaging with customers, and those who love planning and running our company in the most effective way possible. We want people who get up each morning excited to make Microsoft better — that’s how we come closer to fulfilling the potential of all people around the globe.

Our leadership team has discussed these cultural aspects a lot and is committed. In my own staff meetings, we are modeling these new characteristics yet also find ourselves occasionally slipping back. One strategy, united together, with great communication, decisiveness and positive energy is the only way to fly.

Seizing Our Unique Opportunity

Together, we have created great products and great success, but we all want more. That means a strategy to deliver a family of devices and services that best enable people for the activities they value most and the enterprise extensions and services that are most valuable to business. A new structure to bring these to market faster. Stronger centralized services so we can be more efficient and effective. Priority focus areas, short and long term. New characteristics of how we work together. In other words, better execution and innovation through strategy and goal and discipline and engineering coherence. One Microsoft all the time.

Across Microsoft, we are facing incredible new opportunities. As devices become further integrated into everyday life, we will have to create new and extraordinary experiences for our customers on these devices. We are going to focus on completely reinventing experiences like creating or viewing a creative document and what it means to communicate socially at home or in meetings at work. We are going to immerse people in deep entertainment experiences that let them have serious fun in ways so intense and delightful that they will blur the line between reality and fantasy. And as we develop these new experiences, we will also support our developers with the simplest ways to develop apps or cloud services and integrate with our products. We will help businesses that find themselves in a new world of ever-mounting information to manage that information through greater enterprise information assurance. We will make these high-value activities priorities in our strategy.

Lots of change. But in all of this, many key things remains the same. Our incredible people, our spirit, our commitment, our belief in the transformative power of technology — our Microsoft technology — to make the world a better place for billions of people and millions of businesses around the world. It’s why I come to work inspired every day. It’s why we’ve evolved before, and why we’re evolving now. Because we’re not done.

Let’s go.

Steve

REDMOND, Wash. — July 11, 2013 — Microsoft will hold a conference call to discuss the company’s announcement today.

What:
Microsoft Corp. conference call

When:
Thursday, July 11, 2013, 12:30 p.m.

Who:
Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer, and Microsoft’s leadership team

Conference Call

Dial-In: Interested parties should call 888-459-9165 (toll free) or 773-799-3324 and enter passcode Microsoft.

The session will also be streamed live at www.microsoft.com/investor

Reporters, editors and analysts can check www.microsoft.com/news for all additional press materials.

Replay Information: A playback of the conference will also be available approximately one hour after the conclusion of the call at 888-325-4184 (toll free) or 402-998-1249. The webcast will be available for replay at http://www.microsoft.com/investor/Events/default.aspx through the close of business on July 11th, 2014.

For more information, press only:

Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — July 11, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the winners of the 11th annual Microsoft Imagine Cup, the world’s premier competition for student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs to create innovative projects and ultimately bring those ideas to market. Winning projects were announced for the three major Competition categories — Innovation, Games and World Citizenship — as well as three product-specific Challenges and eight special awards from Imagine Cup sponsors.

The winners were announced at the Imagine Cup Awards Ceremony, held at the historic Alexandrinsky Theater and attended by more than 800 students, judges, awards Partners, Russian dignitaries and members of the media from around the world. The ceremony was the culmination of a four-day competition and celebration of bringing ideas to life through technology and teamwork.

United Kingdom Students Win First Place and $50,000 at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Competition July 10, 2013 A group of students from the United Kingdom won $50,000 as the first-place winners of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Innovation Competition with their mobile phone application “soundSYNK,” which creates impromptu social networks that allow people to stream music simultaneously through a group of phones, effectively creating a symphony of speakers.

Downloads: Web

Eighty-seven student teams from 71 countries competed in the Worldwide Finals after winning local and online competitions around the world. Microsoft has awarded cash and other prizes valued at more than $1 million throughout the yearlong Imagine Cup competition, including awards for the winning teams at the Worldwide Finals event this week.

“For the past 11 years, Imagine Cup has been a place of inspiration and innovation for students around the world,” said Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president and chief evangelist at Microsoft. “The students participating in this competition demonstrate the very best in innovation from their home countries and together are creating new apps, innovations and services that will change the way the world works, interacts and learns. We are incredibly proud of the finalists who competed in Imagine Cup this year and stand in awe of the projects and technology they brought forth during this exciting week.”

Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals winners

“Imagine Cup is a forum for exceptional students from around the world to channel their passion and creativity into thoughtful, innovative solutions that have the potential for real-world impact,” said Jon Bassett, DFJ Frontier analyst and a judge at this year’s Imagine Cup. “Their commitment to their teams and projects demonstrates these students are finding ways to address everyday problems through technology and to make the world a better place.”

The winners of the 11th annual Imagine Cup Competitions are the following:

Innovation

• First Place, $50,000 prize: Team Colinked, United Kingdom, Project: SoundSYNK

• Second Place, $10,000 prize: Team DORA, Slovenia, Project: DORA

• Third Place, $5,000 prize: Team MYRA, Thailand, Project: SkyPACS

Games

• First Place, $50,000 prize: Team Zeppelin Studio, Austria, Project: Schein

• Second Place, $10,000 prize: Team Solite Studio, Indonesia, Project: Save the Hamsters

• Third Place, $5,000 prize: Team Banzai Lightning, France, Project: Seed

World Citizenship

• First Place, $50,000 prize: Team for a Better World, Portugal, Project: For a Better World

• Second Place, $10,000 prize: Team Omni-Hearing Solution, Taiwan, Project: Omni-Hearing Solution

• Third Place, $5,000 prize: Team Confufish Royale, Australia, Project: Foodbank Local

Imagine Cup Challenge winners

This year, Imagine Cup offered three exclusively online Challenges to students, providing additional opportunities for learning, prototyping and creating apps using the newest Microsoft technologies. The top three teams in each category were awarded the opportunity to travel to Russia to compete at the finals. The Challenge winners are the following:

Windows Azure Challenge

• First Place, $10,000 Prize: Team Y-Nots, India, Project: Zoik It!

• Second Place, $5,000 Prize: Team nlife, Ukraine, Project: onQuests

• Third Place, $3,000 Prize: Team LetssGo, China, Project: Get & Put

Windows Phone Challenge

• First Place, $10,000 Prize: Team vSoft Studio, Singapore, Project: Speak Reminder

• Second Place, $5,000 Prize: Team WeRule, Poland, Project: Modern Drug Test

• Third Place, $3,000 Prize: Team front, Poland, Project: Cope

Windows 8 Apps Challenge

• First Place, $10,000 Prize: Team TeamNameException, Italy, Project: Ulixes

• Second Place, $5,000 Prize: Team Wordsapp, Germany, Project: Wordsapp

• Third Place, $3,000 Prize: Team Clever Mind, Thailand, Project: Vocable World

Additional Imagine Cup award winners

In addition to the Competitions and Challenges, students competed for the following special awards from Imagine Cup sponsors:

AFT Excellence Award. Five teams will receive AFT (App Fast Track) review by the Windows Team. In recognition of their outstanding Windows 8 Apps projects, the following teams will receive a review process to enhance their projects and deliver great Windows 8 apps:

• Team Banzai Lightning, France

• Team Flying Ship, Brazil

• Team Lumos, Korea

• Team MASKed Ninjas, Egypt

• Team TapBoarders, Poland

AppCampus Award. Team Flying Ship from Brazil won 50,000 euros in funding, airfare and accommodations for its app Callvenient. In recognition of their great project that could be the next big thing on Windows Phone, the team members will fly to Finland for a four-week AppCampus training event.

DreamSpark Learning Award. Team AuThink of Croatia won $5,000 for its project focused on helping autistic children and their parents, which showcases how software creates new ways of learning and teaching.

Facebook Creativity Award. Team AYNi from Ecuador and its volunteering social-network based project took home $25,000 in Facebook advertising credits.

KFC Russia Award. Team Sano from Canada won $10,000 for its health and wellness project. The team’s project will be showcased in KFC Russia’s flagship restaurant in Moscow.

Mail.Ru Group Connected Planet Award. Three teams met Mail.Ru Group’s challenge to develop a project that embraces online communication and entertainment in fun, useful and innovative ways. The following are the winners:

• First Place, $10,000 Prize: Team Y-Nots, India, Project: Zoik It!

• Second Place, $5,000 Prize: Team TeamNameException, Italy, Project: Ulixes

• Third Place, $3,000 Prize: Team LetssGo, China, Project: Get & Put

Samsung Digital Native Award. Team Firebird from Sri Lanka received this $10,000 award that honors the fresh thinking, digital savvy and global perspective of its project.

Women’s Empowerment Award. In partnership with UN Women, this award recognizes two student teams that created projects that best address issues impacting women globally. The following are the winners:

• First Place, $12,000 Prize: Team Code 8, Uganda, Project: Matibabu

• Second Place, $8,000 Prize: Team Omni-Hearing Solution, Taiwan, Project: Omni-Hearing Solution

Boost awards

The following Boost awards also were distributed in recognition of the outstanding achievements of many winning teams:

• The DevExpress Boost. The first-place winning teams in the three Competitions and three Challenges received a DevExpress Universal Subscription that includes a comprehensive and feature-complete software development toolset for .NET developers. The total value per subscription is $8,799.96 per team.

• Windows Azure Boost. First-place winners in the three Competitions and in the Windows 8 Apps and Windows Phone challenges whose projects used Azure Cloud Services won an extra $1,000. In addition, projects that included Windows Mobile Service won an extra $1,000, while projects that included both Azure Cloud Services and Windows Mobile Service qualified for the Double Shot bonus of $3,000.

• Windows 8 Boost. First-, second- and third-place winners of the three Competitions and the Windows Azure and Windows Phone challenges whose projects included a Windows 8 Store App received an extra $1,000 through this boost.

Imagine Cup comes home to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

In 2014, Imagine Cup is headed to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. As part of this year’s awards ceremony, Steve Ballmer addressed the audience via a prerecorded video announcing next year’s competition. The video is available on the Microsoft News Center.

About Microsoft Imagine Cup

Microsoft Imagine Cup is the world’s premier technology program and competition for students to learn, build and compete with innovative tools, platform and services. This is the 11th year of Imagine Cup, which was celebrated at the Worldwide Finals in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 8–11. Students are eligible to register and compete in Imagine Cup by visiting http://www.imaginecup.com. A full list of competition categories is available at http://imaginecup.com/main/compete.

In addition to providing a platform for students to demonstrate and share their next great technologies, Imagine Cup has taken on an increased focus in preparing these students to be young entrepreneurs in the global marketplace. All Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalist teams whose projects focus on social good are eligible to apply for Imagine Cup Grants. All Worldwide Finalists teams received grant applications at the finals event in St. Petersburg, and the process will officially close Aug. 16, 2013. In addition, through the Microsoft BizSpark program, Imagine Cup participants can launch startup businesses in their communities and across the Web.

Imagine Cup was made possible by support from key partners that are committed to helping students embrace the full potential of technology. These partners include the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Avanade Inc., AppCampus, Developer Express Inc., Microsoft DreamSpark, Facebook, KFC Corp., Mail.Ru Group, Samsung, Skolkovo Foundation, UN Women, Windows Azure and Windows.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — July 10, 2013 — At the Worldwide Partner Conference today, Microsoft Corp. announced CityNext, a global initiative empowering cities, businesses and citizens to re-imagine their futures and cultivate vibrant communities. Cities are centers of industrial, economic and entrepreneurial activity that fuel the rest of the world’s success. But cities increasingly encounter compelling forces, such as rapid urbanization, modernization mandates, and economic austerity pressures. Microsoft CityNext offers cities a vast and diverse Microsoft Partner Network of more than 430,000 technology experts across the globe to innovate today and create a better tomorrow. Leveraging a broad portfolio of familiar and security-enhanced consumer to business software, devices and services and Microsoft’s history of successful education and social programs, CityNext is a collective effort that enables cities and their people to accomplish what’s next.

“Cities play a vital role in our lives — both now and in the future. Microsoft’s CityNext initiative puts people first and builds on this new era of collaborative technology to engage citizens, business and government leaders in new ways,” said Laura Ipsen, corporate vice president of Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector. “Working with our vast Microsoft Partner Network, we can scale solutions and services to do ‘New with Less,’ enabling cities to better compete in the global marketplace, drive citizen engagement, and foster economic, social and environmental sustainability.”

Transforming operations and infrastructure

CityNext helps leaders make the most of their existing investments to find new ways to overcome challenges and reach their goals. With the new era of innovation, cities can enable new capabilities using flexible cloud services, empower city employees with enterprise-grade devices and apps, and innovate on their terms with modern solutions and big data platforms. This innovation can allow critical information to flow seamlessly between municipal departments and among government, businesses and citizens, driving efficiencies that can let cities put more resources back into the community.

CityNext brings together an ecosystem of partner solutions, devices and services that can connect and transform a variety of city functions, including the following:

• Energy and water

• Buildings, planning and infrastructure

• Transportation

• Public safety and justice

• Tourism, recreation and culture

• Education

• Health and social services

• Government administration

CityNext customer Barcelona, Spain — long recognized as a digital innovator — has successfully harnessed cloud, data and apps to enhance administrative operations, interact with citizens and make information transparent. For example, Microsoft and CityNext partner BISmart worked with the Barcelona City Council to launch OpenData BCN, an initiative to make data accessible to the public. Using the Windows Azure cloud, the OpenData BCN platform aggregates myriad facts about the city — such as population density and total unemployment — into a central hub with enhanced security. Citizens then can download the bigov Better City Indicators app from the Windows Store and monitor fluctuations in real time. Barcelonans now have access to information to make decisions on topics such as where to start a business and where to settle down with their families.

“We’ve been working with Microsoft for many years and have witnessed tremendous innovation across government, enterprise and citizen services through cloud technology and devices. Yet, even more can be done to engage Barcelonans and enhance citizens’ experiences,” said Xavier Trias, mayor of Barcelona. “We will continue to collaborate closely with Microsoft and leverage cutting-edge technology, services and programs that will make Barcelona a better place to live, work, visit and thrive.”

Engaging citizens and businesses

Citizens and businesses expect access to and interaction with city governments through apps and the devices of their choice — anytime, anywhere. With Microsoft’s software, device and services platform, cities can deliver personalized services and apps with a people-centric approach, enable real-time dialogue via social media, and spur app development and economic growth with open data initiatives, resulting in better-served and engaged constituents.

Microsoft CityNext partner Socrata Inc., a cloud software company leading the shift to data-driven government, is working with Microsoft to bring open data technologies to cities worldwide on the Windows Azure cloud platform. For example, Socrata offers governments customizable dashboards. Citizens can access their cities’ dashboards through mobile devices or the Internet and monitor how their leaders are performing in areas such as education, healthcare and job creation. City leaders can engage with citizens in real time, incorporate public demands into their decision-making processes and ensure that they respond to their communities’ most pressing needs. In turn, governments can bring data and citizen feedback into every decision, fostering greater transparency and community participation.

“The forward-looking CityNext initiative addresses a once-in-a-generation global shift currently taking place in government: opening up government data and using it to enhance citizen services,” said Kevin Merritt, CEO and founder at Socrata. “Through simple, familiar apps and devices, governments can now engage everyone, everywhere. We are already seeing incredible progress and, in partnership with Microsoft, will enable global leaders to make sound decisions, drive efficiencies and help them meet citizen demands for ubiquitous access to information.”

Accelerating innovation and opportunity

Cities will not only realize full transformation through technology but also through nurturing the creativity of their most important resource — human capital. Microsoft and partners offer a variety of skills-based programs that educate students and teachers, foster business development, and empower citizens to join a competitive workforce. Around the world, these programs have helped millions of city residents cultivate a brighter future for themselves and their cities. For example, Microsoft programs YouthSpark, BizSpark and IT Academy encourage youth to join a growing workforce, support entrepreneurs’ bold ideas and create skilled workers that help cities compete in the global marketplace.

Visionary cities

Cities are already on their journey toward modernizing today. In fact, several visionary cities have stepped forward to embark with Microsoft and CityNext partners on this journey to identify and create what is next for their communities. Led by motivated, forward-looking leaders, these cities are taking an important step to better serve citizens and realize the potential of tomorrow through cross-functional collaboration that increases efficiencies, reduces costs and fosters a more sustainable environment.

• Auckland, New Zealand

• Barcelona, Spain

• Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Hainan Province, People’s Republic of China

• Hamburg, Germany

• Manchester, England

• Moscow, Russia

• Philadelphia, United States of America

• Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China

“Today’s cities know they must tackle urban challenges through coordinated and focused investments that enable collaboration across departments and agencies, leverage existing assets, engage citizens and stakeholders, and tackle long-standing problems,” said Ruthbea Yesner Clarke, director of the Smart Cities Strategies program at IDC. “According to IDC’s Smart City Maturity Model, many cities are now in the first stages of implementing smart technology solutions as part of a 10- to 15-year path to realizing full transformation potential. The result of ‘smart city’ initiatives will ultimately enable cities to attract businesses and citizens to build more vibrant city landscapes and competitive economies.”

More information about CityNext is available at http://www.microsoft.com/citynext/.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — July 9, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has settled 3,265 copyright infringement cases around the globe during the past year. At the end of its fiscal year on June 30, the cases totaled 35 across 19 U.S. states and 3,230 international cases across 42 countries.

“Software counterfeiting negatively impacts local and global economic growth, stifles innovation, and puts consumers and businesses at risk,” said David Finn, associate general counsel in the Microsoft Cybercrime Center.

The majority of Microsoft enforcement cases have resulted from consumer tips and reports, and since 2005, the company has heard from more than 450,000 customers who reported counterfeit software, which was often riddled with malware and viruses or did not work as they expected.

Among the settled cases was Microsoft’s agreement with the Ningbo Beyond Group of China, which had allegedly infringed the software company’s copyrights in Microsoft’s Windows, Office, Server and Visual Studio software.

“In addition to our other cases, Microsoft is pleased to have resolved this matter,” Finn added. “We look forward to the Ningbo Beyond Group also resolving important claims filed this January by the California attorney general in a manner that ensures future compliance with California law and sets a positive example for Chinese companies doing business in California.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

HOUSTON — July 9 , 2013 — Large companies and SMBs use business social tools — defined as technologies that enable business collaboration and communication, such as intranets, video conferencing and social networks — in dramatically different ways, leading to very different selling motions and partner opportunities, according to new research released today by Microsoft Corp. at its annual partner conference.

The study, conducted by research firm Ipsos among nearly 10,000 end users at SMBs and large companies in 32 countries, found that, in addition to using solutions such as intranets and instant messaging services, SMBs are more likely to utilize multiple external social tools for professional purposes. Large companies, on the other hand, are more likely to deploy fewer, more prevalent collaboration tools.

Social tool usage July 08, 2013 Results of the IPSOS study on enterprise social tools

Downloads: Web

“Social collaboration technologies represent a growing opportunity for partners with strong demand from end users at both large companies and SMBs,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft. “However, each segment uses these technologies in different ways, with SMBs seeing public FTP/cloud storage, external social networks, blogging platforms while large companies clearly prefer intranets, team sites and videoconferencing. These differences represent huge opportunities for partners, and we’re committed to helping them capitalize on the potential in this space. We believe Microsoft has the expertise, the portfolio and the vision to make the future of workplace collaboration a reality.”

Other unique differences called out in the study include the following:

• Although the top use for social tools in both large companies and SMBs is communicating with colleagues (selected by seven in 10 of all end users surveyed), those at smaller companies use social tools for a broader range of tasks, including communicating with customers, clients or vendors and researching customers, clients and competitors. In contrast, end users are large companies are more likely to use social tools for finding an expert of information within their company.

• Barriers to adoption still exist across large companies and SMBs. For both groups, security concerns (71 percent of end users at large companies vs. 60 percent of SMB end users) and productivity loss (58 percent at large companies vs. 59 percent at SMBs) were identified as the top risks.

• End users at large companies are more likely to say their IT department can be a barrier to using social tools (41 percent at large companies vs. 36 percent at SMBs).

• Those at large companies are also more likely to say social tools are restricted at their workplace because of concerns about company image (27 percent vs. 21 percent at SMBs) or data loss (25 percent at large companies vs. 22 at SMBs).

“The consumerization of IT has changed the fundamental way in which businesses communicate, with enterprise social tools now following a ‘bring your own device’ model into the workplace,” said Rebecca Sizelove, associate vice president, Ipsos Public Affairs. “However, there are distinct differences between how SMBs and large companies adopt these tools, and technology decision-makers still require a certain amount of education around the benefits social tools can provide. This creates opportunities for technology vendors to educate and sell to businesses of all sizes.”

About the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is a four-day event taking place July 8–11 in Houston that celebrates the accomplishments of the company’s global partners and gives a preview of the coming year for Microsoft. This year’s event attracted more than 14,000 attendees from 150 countries around the world.

Clips of executive keynote speeches and details on additional news at WPC are available at http://www.digitalwpc.com or the Microsoft Partner Network Virtual Newsroom at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/partnernetwork.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

HOUSTON — July 8, 2013 — Partners with more than 50 percent of their revenue related to the cloud have been benefiting from higher gross profit, more new customers, increased revenue per employee and faster overall business growth, according to a new IDC study, sponsored by Microsoft Corp., released today at the company’s annual partner conference.

The study underscored the transformation taking place in the business world as more organizations of all sizes move their technology infrastructures to the cloud. In fact, according to the findings, cloud-oriented partners, defined as those that generate more than 50 percent of their revenue from the cloud, grow at double the rate, accrue new customers more than two times faster and generate 30 percent more revenue per employee compared with noncloud-oriented partners.

“Cloud alone hasn't caused these impressive numbers, though that is absolutely part of it; top-performing partners were visionaries that took on cloud technologies before their peers,” said Darren Bibby, program vice president of Channels and Alliances Research, IDC. “We’re at the point in the industry’s overall cloud transition where partners that don’t move some of their business to the cloud likely won’t survive. And some partners that are getting ready to sell their business or retire may be OK with that. Most won't be.”

Study r eveals c ustomers p refer s ingle c loud s ervice p rovider

IDC research also revealed customer buying preferences that highlight the importance of a comprehensive cloud vendor and the ability to offer various deployment options:

• Sixty-three percent of customers expect to have a single cloud service provider to meet their needs.

• Sixty-seven percent expect to purchase a wide variety of cloud services from a single vendor.

• Seventy-four percent expect their cloud service provider to be able to move a cloud offering back on-premises if needed.

“IDC’s data reveals that businesses prefer to buy end-to-end IT solutions from a single cloud vendor and want to work with a company they have an established relationship with. With Office 365 now on a $1 billion annual revenue run rate and more than 250,000 customers using Windows Azure, with thousands more added every week, our partners are in a prime position to support this,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft. “This research validates our belief that the most successful partners are the ones that offer a hybrid approach to IT. Microsoft is the only vendor equipped to help partners offer their customers a suite of on-premises and cloud solutions in both public and private cloud environments. By offering a hybrid approach, it better addresses customer needs and, in turn, helps our partners make more money.”

The full study and more details, such as a related infographic, can be found at

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/partnernetwork/docs/IDCMicrosoftCloudInfoDoc.pdf .

About the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is a four-day event taking place July 8–11 in Houston that celebrates the accomplishments of the company’s global partners and gives a preview of the coming year for Microsoft. This year’s event attracted more than 14,000 attendees from 150 countries around the world.

Clips of executive keynote speeches and details on additional news at WPC are available at http://www.digitalwpc.com or the Microsoft Partner Network Virtual Newsroom at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/partnernetwork.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.