Microsoft acquires Sidekick designer

Microsoft has agreed to purchase mobile software developer Danger Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which has not yet been finalised, means the software vendor has closed at least one bid this week - its unsolicited bid for web search competitor Yahoo! was officially snubbed earlier today. Danger designed the popular T- …

[Rick]

Hatfield's and McCoy's

Sounds like The Beast from Redmond is trying to keep up with the SUPER BEAST from Stanford. I think we are going to be needing some kind of google icon soon. I wonder at what point does the SEC or Gov step in. Oh wait they won't. Next on the SUPER BEASTS list TV. Apple needs to watch out.

[Anonymous Coward]

A Perfect Complement

"The addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement..."

Is it perfect complement to other M$ products because Danger is capable of writing easily hacked software?

[Anonymous Coward]

@A Perfect Complement

To be fair, if memory serves correctly - everyone's favourite Heiress used her extremely well publicised dog's name as her 'secret question'.

Danger can hardly be blamed for the weakest link.

[Joe Stalin]

Microsoft Buying Spree

Just read a news story linked from Groklaw about the Yahoo bid "Microsoft's $80 Billion (and Growing) Yahoo Headache". MS has taken a 13% hit on it's stock value, so the question is how much of Bill Gates personal fortune just went south and is he now only the third richest man on the planet?

Mr. Smiley, just because. Tee hee.

[Geoff Mackenzie]

But I thought ...

... Danger was always built into Microsoft's software...

[Lance]

@Geoff Mackenzie

It is, they just needed to reinforce that point.

Just think of the new Phone; Will Robinson.

[Anonymous Coward]

lets get real

This is good news for consumers. Microsoft are clearly panicking at Apple's strong entry into the phone market. So Microsoft are going to have to strengthen their shonky clunky useless offering, and Apple will in turn reciprocate.

Which should hopefully mean we all get better designed handsets and software sooner rather than later.

For what it's worth I can't see myself ever buying a Microsoft (or Danger Inc.) powered handset though.

[Captain DaFt]

What does Microsoft know?

Their recent flurry of acquisitions resembles AOL's sudden push to acquire Time Warner back in 2000.

Steve Case saw the writing on the wall, both for dial-up and the dotcom bubble, and merged the transient value of AOL stock with Time Warner. After the bubble burst, the new AOL Time-Warner took a big hit, but not the headshot AOL alone would have taken.

So, what exactly does Microsoft see looming that has them grabbing at acquisitions before their value slips away? What's supposed to happen this summer when Billy says aloha?

(I haven't a clue, but then I rarely do!)

[Tuomo Stauffer]

Next, MS will take..

It seems weird, MS wants to compete (at the same time) with Google, Nokia-Siemens and other MS independent phone vendors, Linux, Sun, IBM, Sony, Apple and even HP (in systems management and no match to NonStop yet but maybe later?). Not small companies! I'm not so sure that even they have resources for that and definitely they don't have the management infrastructure currently. Maybe they are doing the right thing - buy the knowledge but it will take time to put that all together and in their current confusion, what is important and what is not, doesn't seem too promising.

[Bruno Girin]

@Tuomo Stauffer

But haven't they always tried to compete with everyone else at the same time with their own proprietary solutions? I mean if you're trying to take over the world and have everybody use M$ and only M$, you've can't just half compete, can you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Desperate or what!

What with Google Android and Nokia buying Trolltech, this stinks of desperation from Microsoft. They can see they will be at least third in the market and will trail further and further behind the pack leaders.

Paris: Because she is desperate and rapidly losing money in the near future

[Jeff Dickey]

@AC ("Desperate or what!")

Exactly. They're acting like a more paranoid Borg on steroids, but they're trying to project "We Are The World" to the buying sheeple. It will be interesting to see how long they can keep that schizophrenia "working"...

[pctechxp]

hacker proof backup address boiok

called Pen and Paper!!

Why would anyone store contact details on a telco's server?

If there is anything as ridiculous as the automatic mandatory backup of SIM contact data to a telco's server introduced I wont use the phone book on the SIM either.

Mind you,I have a good memory for numbers that matter which when all said and done are about 3 in total.