Strides Made in Fight Against Piracy, Microsoft Says
The software industry still faces “a big challenge” with piracy in China, but Microsoft is “a good deal more optimistic about the future” for dealing with the issue than it was “two or three years ago,” Brad Smith, senior vice president of Microsoft legal and corporate affairs, told the company’s annual meeting Tuesday in Seattle.
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Microsoft remains focused on combating piracy in China and other countries, and is “working with the rest of the industry” and U.S. government on various fronts, Smith said. The Chinese government is also increasingly offering “strong support” for these efforts, to create jobs in China and create a thriving technology sector there, he added. The largest crackdown on counterfeit software was done early this year in China with the “active cooperation and support of the Chinese government” and U.S. government, he said, calling that “a good reflection of the kinds of things we're trying to do.”
The company was asked by an investor at the meeting to explain why certain executives had recently sold large numbers of Microsoft shares. Bill Gates, attending a Microsoft shareholder meeting for his last time as full-time chairman, said most of his net worth is in Microsoft stock. He and CEO Steve Ballmer said they remained confident in Microsoft and the stock sales shouldn’t be read as a sign otherwise.
Microsoft started selling the new Zune digital devices that the company unveiled last month and launched its new Zune Social online community website, Ballmer noted. But he offered no Zune shipment or sales numbers. For the first time, Microsoft is enabling consumers to customize Zunes with laser-engraved designs and personal text through a new Zune Originals Web store, Microsoft said.
The company is getting good responses from customers, Ballmer said, singling out the receptions for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, as well as the company’s updated Windows Live Services and the Xbox 360 videogame Halo 3. But no sales or shipment specifics were provided on those fronts, either.
Shareholders elected 10 directors to serve until the next annual meeting, ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche as the company’s independent auditor for fiscal 2008 and, at the urging of Microsoft management, voted down two shareholder proposals -- one to stop doing business with governments that censor Internet use and the other to set up a board committee for human rights.
Separately, Microsoft said its new international headquarters opened in Redmond, Wash., as the first of seven new buildings on its West Campus. Its Entertainment and Devices Division will occupy four of the seven buildings that are part of the 1.4 million square feet of West Campus under construction, it said. The construction is expected to be completed in April 2009. Microsoft also doubled its space investments to expand the Redmond campus beyond what it announced in early 2006, it disclosed. Updates to the plan now include an additional 21 leased sites in Bellevue, Issaquah, Redmond and Seattle, which will provide a combined total of 5.5 million square feet, it said. Microsoft will also start site planning for the addition of new buildings on the land it acquired from Nintendo of America, Microsoft said. Construction start and end dates weren’t set yet for that, it said.
The company also agreed to buy mobile music entertainment company Musiwave, it said. The price wasn’t disclosed. Microsoft’s mobile technology runs on various mobile platforms featured on more than 140 mobile phones from 50 handset makers, it said.