In the News

To set up a new venture, an entrepreneur not only needs financial support, but also proper infrastructure, access to market and customers, and a good mentor. That’s where the role of a corporate venture arm, that can provide this, comes in. Mukund Mohan, Director, Microsoft Ventures said, “The model of Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) mostly focuses on investing in a company to help its products and platform to expand beyond the current state.” Microsoft Ventures, through their accelerator program, offers start-ups vital infrastructure support, tools, and training—along with a strong network of successful entrepreneurs, industry experts and advisors.

In 2010, Girish Mathrubootham read an article on how Zendesk’s customer support software has become expensive for smaller businesses. That set him thinking and soon enough, he founded Freshdesk—a virtual customer support software as a service. FreshDesk got lucky when it won the $40,000 Microsoft BizSpark startup award in January 2011. This acted as seed capital, and was used towards marketing adwords campaigns and for driving customer traction.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft Corporation, will head an 11-member jury to choose the winners of the 2014 edition of the ET Awards. Nadella, who became only the third leader of the software company in February, will head a panel whose members include some of India’s top industrialists, bankers and lawyers. They include the elder statesman of Indian business KV Kamath, chairman of ICICI Bank and lead independent director of Infosys.

IT services major Infosys said it has joined hands with Microsoft, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and Huawei in a bid to expand offerings in Cloud, Big Data & Analytics, Communication, Infrastructure & Data Centre Transformation segments. The Bangalore-based firm, which is a systems integration partner of Microsoft, will also establish a global ‘centre of excellence’ for Microsoft Azure Machine Learning that will train over 1,000 engineers by the end of fiscal year 2015, the company said in a statement.

One of Microsoft’s large solution partners, Comparex, has registered 20 percent year-on-year growth in its business, riding on a higher adoption of Microsoft Office 365 amongst its customers. Navin Kapur, Managing Director, Comparex India said that the global IT service provider specializes in license management, software procurement and technical product consulting, while it serves public-sector bodies as well as SMEs, industrial companies and large international corporations. It operates in 31 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Devices-maker Notion Ink is making a comeback in the Indian market with ‘Cain’, developed in partnership with Intel. The Windows-based 2-in-1, which works both as a PC and a tablet, will be available exclusively on Snapdeal. “With prices falling, we expect more people to opt for 2-in-1s and we are seeing a trend in that direction. 2-in-1s provides the functionality of a PC and mobility like that of a smartphone,” Intel South Asia Director (Marketing and Market Development) Sandeep Aurora said.

With sitting for long periods at work becoming a health hazard, the ‘standing at work’ culture is quickly catching on. At Microsoft India’s Gurgaon and Hyderabad offices, a flexible desk arrangement allows employees to work in spaces to suit their preferences. Rohit Thakur, head of HR at Microsoft India said, “We believe office design and support services need to keep pace with today’s dynamic work environment. This includes the practice of standing and working, which has a positive impact on an individual’s health and state of mind.”

From business software to gaming and entertainment, Microsoft has been at the forefront of innovation and disruptive technologies. In an interview, General Manager, Advertising and Online, Asia Pacific at Microsoft, Adam Anger talks about the company’s new digital advertising strategy, the future of the revamped MSN, the state of the current search partnership with Yahoo, among other things. About Microsoft’s plans in the digital market space for India, he said, “We prioritize India as one of the geographies where we expand our advertising portfolio for brands.”

Microsoft’s feature phones, the Nokia 130 and Nokia 130 Dual SIM, launched last month at a recommended retail price of approximately Rs 1,500, are now being rolled out globally. The company announced that the handsets will first be available in countries including China, Pakistan, and Nigeria before being rolled out to more markets over the coming weeks. Microsoft noted, “The Nokia 130 is a perfect device for people young and old alike who are looking for their first mobile phone, or for those looking for a rock-solid backup phone to use alongside their smartphone.”

Microsoft will acquire Stockholm-based games developer Mojang and its popular Minecraft video game franchise for USD 2.5 billion—to woo more users to Xbox. ‘Minecraft’ is one of the most popular video games in history, with more than 100 million downloads on PC alone, since its launch in 2009. The acquisition is expected to close in late 2014 and breakeven in FY15. Microsoft plans to continue to make Minecraft available across all the platforms on which it is currently available—PC, iOS, Android, Xbox and PlayStation.