Microsoft Corp

* Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet division slipped back into the red on an operating basis with a $79-million loss, despite posting its first-ever profit in the previous quarter, the software maker said in a regulatory filing. Revenue, however, grew 19% to $546 million as it shifted its focus toward generating ad revenue and signing up subscribers for its broadband-targeted MSN services.

Microsoft Corp. chief Steve Ballmer should surrender the throne, a well-known hedge fund investor says. David Einhorn, the manager of the Greenlight Capital fund, said Ballmer, who has been Microsoft's chief executive since 2000, should "give someone else a chance. " "His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft's stock," Einhorn said at an investment conference Wednesday, according to a report from Reuters, which later added that a source close to Microsoft said directors still supported Ballmer.

Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, reported fourth-quarter profit topped analysts' estimates after customers purchased more personal computers running the Windows operating system. Net income climbed to $4.52 billion, or 51 cents a share, compared with the 46-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 22 percent, the most in more than two years, to $16 billion, the company said today in a statement. Microsoft is benefitting from a recovery in spending by large businesses.

* Microsoft Corp. said it will shut down its Internet access service in Germany because it can no longer compete against a number of low-cost providers already established in that market.

Microsoft Corp. adopted a new mantra, promising to work harder to make its software work better with other software systems and hardware, Chairman Bill Gates said in an e-mail to customers. Previously, such e-mails signaled the launch of new initiatives; the last major one was to improve the security of the company's software.

Microsoft Corp. said it had acquired a British online mapping company to enhance its Windows Live Web-based services. The software maker did not say what it paid for Multimap, which provides street-level maps, travel directions and local information as well as hotel and restaurant booking services.

The government and Microsoft Corp. have asked a federal judge to delay their antitrust trial four days until Oct. 19, a lawyer close to the case said. The lawyer, who requested anonymity, said pretrial interviews still aren't complete.

Microsoft Corp. said it promoted Linda Stone to vice president for corporate and industry initiatives, charged with changing its corporate culture. Stone, formerly Microsoft Research's director of the "virtual worlds" group, will meet with customers, partners and competitors to see how Microsoft can improve its relationships with other companies.

With a splashy, musical ad campaign aimed at young buyers, Microsoft Corp. on Monday sought to carve out a piece of the fast-moving smart phone market with a pair of new handsets. In unveiling its Kin One and Kin Two phones, which will be available through Verizon Wireless starting in May, the company focused largely on the social and musical features of its software. The Kin's promotional site featured young people -- many equipped with the new phones -- dancing to live rock music at a local club.

For Microsoft Corp.'s earnings, a new set of Windows made a huge difference. Boosted by the arrival of its Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft had a 14% rise in sales in its fiscal second quarter that ended Dec. 31, the software giant said Thursday. That helped make for a 60% jump in profit to $6.7 billion, or 74 cents a share, compared with a year earlier when the Redmond, Wash., company had net income of $4.17 billion, or 47 cents. Revenue increased to $19 billion from $16.6 billion.

Twitter Inc. will make about $25 million from Internet-search deals with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced in October, enough to push the site into profitability, people familiar with the matter said. A deal that made Twitter's messages searchable on Google's site will generate about $15 million, the sources said, while a similar pact with Microsoft's Bing search engine will earn Twitter about $10 million. As a result, Twitter is expected to make a small profit in 2009 after paying operating costs of about $20 million to $25 million a year.

Escalating the battle between traditional newspapers and online news providers, media mogul Rupert Murdoch lashed out at Google Inc. and other Web companies Tuesday, accusing them of looting news articles and contributing to the industry's decline. "There are those who think they have a right to take our news content and use it for their own purposes without contributing a penny to its production," Murdoch said at a Washington forum on the future of newspapers. "Their almost wholesale misappropriation of our stories is not fair use. To be impolite, it's theft."

Microsoft Corp. and OpenX Technologies Inc., a Pasadena-based Web advertising start-up, have struck a deal that would enable both companies to expand the reach of their online ad businesses. OpenX, which operates one of the nation's largest independent online advertising networks, develops software that enables marketers to funnel ads to websites that are visited by the type of buyers they are targeting. Similarly, advertisers use Microsoft to create and distribute ads, be they for flowers, movies or Maseratis.

It seemed edgy when Microsoft Corp. said it would team with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane on a variety TV show airing next month. The software giant was going to be the only advertiser on the show and would collaborate with MacFarlane and his partner, Alex Borstein. The pair would write jokes and skits into the show that would promote the Redmond, Wash., software maker's latest operating system, Windows 7, which came out last week. Now comes word that Microsoft has pulled out. Apparently "the content was not a good fit," according to a statement the company released Monday.

Microsoft Corp. revised its rules to make it easier for shareholders to force directors off the board. Directors who receive a majority of "withhold" votes in an uncontested election will be asked to resign, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said. Microsoft also declared a dividend of 8 cents a share, payable Dec. 8.

Can Windows 7 repair Microsoft Corp.'s reputation and trigger enough sales to pull the technology sector out of its financial funk? That seemed to be the overriding question Thursday as Microsoft officially took the wraps off its latest operating system, much of which was already public knowledge, with more than 8 million testers having used it since January. In the past, thousands of technology companies could count on each release of a new Windows operating system to deliver its own economic stimulus: Millions of consumers would rush out to buy faster computers and companies would splurge on more powerful computer systems.

Almost no one found Microsoft Corp.'s last attempt at a new operating system, Windows Vista, very entertaining. So when it came time for the software giant to create the sequel, it hoped a little Hollywood touch would bring audiences back to its screens. Jonathan Wiedemann, the former managing director of Propaganda Films, which made groundbreaking MTV videos as well as films such as "Wild at Heart" and "Madonna: Truth or Dare," has for the last three years been leading a team responsible for a key feature on the Windows 7 operating system, the much-hyped upgrade to Vista that Microsoft will begin selling today.