Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”-Salesforce.com and now Microsoft take on Woosabi

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Greenbaum/?p=163

April 18th, 2008 ……Microsoft OnLine CRM …Hunts Salesforce.com………..And Woosabi!! (this is not really in the ZDnet/Microsoft article…but just couldn’t resist it!…Tony@woosabi .com)

“The official GA release of Microsoft’s CRM Online offering is next week, and with it comes a new chapter in the life of Salesforce.com. To date Salesforce.com has lacked a major competitor that could be seen as a worthy opponent in terms of overall size, price, functionality, and marketing chops…Now there’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. And the challenges for Salesforce.com can now begin. The goals of CRM Online are to match or beat Salesforce.com in feature/functionality, absolutely beat it in price, and with the combined power of the Microsoft brand and the ubiquitousness of the Outlook user base, seriously challenge Benioff’s hype machine on the marketing side. And they definitely have a chance at succeeding in all three…….”

We at Woosabi wish both salesforce.com and microsoft dynamics well (I was told to say that bit…..!) in their quest to battle it out in the “big money” PR + Marketing arena. However, to you Small Businesses (SME) and New Start Ups (NSU) that look beneath the “PR Headlines” there are other more affordable, more user-friendly, more SME/NSU focused and less hyped CRM systems out there to help maintain and grow your customers and businesses.

Microsoft: Office Live for Small Businesses gets upgrade

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Microsoft start edging into the SME market - time to get our skates on :p

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 10, 2008 — To help small businesses effectively market themselves and sell online, Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://www.smallbusiness.officelive.com) today launched new features and enhancements to its Web service. New features include Store Manager, an e-commerce tool to help small businesses easily sell products on their own Web site and on eBay; and E-mail Marketing beta, to make sending e-mail newsletters and promotions simple and affordable. Small businesses that sign up will receive a valuable set of tools and features for free, including Web hosting; rich site design capabilities; numerous productivity applications; contact management software for performing basic customer relationship management (CRM); and custom domain name registration with 100 business e-mail accounts (custom domains are free for the first year). This release is also compatible with the Firefox 2.0 Web browser, making the service accessible on both Macs and PCs.

Microsoft & Yahoo lovers tiff part 2: Yahoo reject offer

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Yahoo have just releases the following statement (well, it was in all the papers and blogs on the weekend first ;) I sense Yahoo are playing hard to get!

Sunnyvale, Calif., February 11, 2008 — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today said the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!’s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.

After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments. The Board of Directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders.

Yahoo!

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company are acting as financial advisors to Yahoo!. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to Yahoo!, and Munger Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as counsel to the outside directors of Yahoo!.

It’s our ball and we’re going home!

Monday, February 4th, 2008

yahoo

Google have responded to a potential Microsoft buyout of Yahoo with a curious cry about ethics : “It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the internet: openness and innovation”

Which is interesting, as I don’t recall them playing that ‘openness’ card when they agreed to censor their search results for Chinese web surfers - I think it’s probably niave to have thought they would, but China’s record on openness, innovation and human rights is an abomination and Google could have stood up and said, it’s either uncensored or nothing at all. They chose the yuan instead and in doing so a little of that ‘Do no evil’ Mission statement was devalued and as such this latest ‘outrage’ will find people a little hard of hearing this time around.

Story here