Newspapers Online. 08-24-2013 | Politics Clock Is

Ballmer, 57, a close friend and confidant of co-founder Bill Gates since the company's earliest days, took over as CEO in January 2000. During his tenure Microsoft's revenues tripled but he's long been a target of criticism from Wall Street and Silicon Valley as the company's share price stagnated and rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc led a mobile computing revolution that has upended the global technology industry.

Ballmer's planned exit comes just weeks after the company announced a major reorganization and delivered an earnings report that showed across-the-board weakness in the business, including dismal sales of the company's new Surface tablet and a lukewarm reaction to the crucial Windows 8 operating system.

Activist investing fund ValueAct Capital Management LP said in April that it had taken a stake in the company and shortly after began agitating for a change in strategy and a clear CEO succession plan.

There are no obvious candidates to succeed Ballmer at the company that has only had two CEOs in its 38-year history. Many promising executives have left or were pushed out by Ballmer, who had once indicated that he intended to stay at least until 2017.

The recent reorganization was aimed at reshaping Microsoft - once primarily a purveyor of packaged software - into a company focused on devices and services, essentially mimicking Apple. Most industry watchers felt it was too little, too late, though the company's statements on Friday said the strategy would remain intact for now.

"Since he took over in 2000, it is fair to say he missed a number of transitions: mobile, tablets, cloud," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at ZK Research. "Microsoft continues to live off traditional PC computing. Ballmer's strength is traditional PC computing. He was a great guy for his era but times have changed and a new leadership is needed. It's hard to say his tenure has been a success."

Microsoft's already-large profits doubled since Ballmer became CEO, but its share price has flatlined over the last decade, and has never come close to the split-adjusted high of $59.97 it reached in late 1999, before the tech stock bubble burst.

Microsoft shares were up 7 percent at $34.64 on Nasdaq on Friday.

At issue is how to ensure that Apple does not violate antitrust law, following a July 10 ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan that it had conspired with five major publishers to undermine pricing by rivals including Amazon.com Inc, which dominates the market for electronic books.

Apple says the government is overreaching by insisting that it hire an external monitor, let e-book retailers add hyperlinks to their own websites in their e-book apps without charge, and face limits on how it negotiates for other content including movies, music and TV shows.

Cote must approved any injunction.

In a court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice, joined by 33 U.S. states and territories, suggested halving the length of its previously proposed injunction to five years from 10, with leave to seek as many as five one-year extensions if needed.

At Cote's suggestion, they also recommended that Apple hold staggered negotiations with the publishers starting in two years, hopefully minimizing the chance of future collusion, and removed previously proposed language that they said Apple had claimed would hurt its ability to run its popular App Store.

But in rejecting other changes that the company wanted, and while expressing a desire not to "unnecessarily harm Apple," the governments said the Cupertino, California-based company's continuing refusal to admit it did anything wrong warranted tough medicine.

"Quite simply, Apple wants to continue business as usual, regardless of the antitrust laws," the filing said. "This court should have no confidence that Apple on its own effectively can ensure that its illegal conduct will not be repeated. There must be significant oversight by someone not entrenched in Apple's culture of insensitivity to basic tenets of antitrust law."

LETTER AND SPIRIT OF THE LAW

In a separate court filing, Apple said the proposal for an external monitor "exceeds the bounds of even criminal price-fixing cases," and reflects an effort "to use this civil injunction to inflict punishment, which is impermissible."

The company said its own proposed remedies are stringent enough, and enable it to remain "one of the world's most innovative companies, while acting consistently with both the letter and spirit of the antitrust laws."

Setting up shop in Los Angeles' Santa Monica and New York's Nolita brings Intel closer to the major TV networks and production studios that the world's biggest chipmaker must strike deals with to gather content for its live and on-demand service, Intel spokesman Jon Carvill said.

Opening the offices is a sign that Intel is committed to moving ahead with the venture even though progress making deals has been slow. Some industry insiders have expressed doubts about Intel's ability to successfully create a business to challenge traditional cable operators.

"It suggests that there's an ongoing level of interest, maybe an incremental positive to their commitment," said Cody Acree, an analyst at Williams Financial Group. "They have to continue down this path or there's no hope of being successful."

Intel plans to introduce the TV service, to be delivered through the Internet and a set-top box, this year in a phased rollout in regional markets, Carvill said.

In July, Intel Media hired Moe Khosravy, a cloud-computing expert who previously worked at Microsoft Corp and VMWare Inc, as head of software and user experiences. Intel has about 375 people working on the TV business, most of them based at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

Doubts about Intel's commitment to the venture emerged in June after newly appointed Chief Executive Brian Krzanich warned he was taking a cautious approach to television, far from the company's core business of chip manufacturing.

Some content providers have agreed with Intel about how their content would be distributed, but as of June the chipmaker had yet to sign any deals despite offering to pay sizeable premiums over traditional cable rates.

Carvill declined to comment on Intel's negotiations.

Intel is not the only technology company trying to revolutionize the TV industry, where Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc and DirecTV are players and have much to lose from potential new entrants. Apple Inc, Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc are believed to be working on their own new TV services and products.

Media companies typically give better prices to operators with more viewers, such as large cable companies, and charge higher prices to smaller or newer entrants. Since Intel's TV service has yet to start, it can expect to pay a premium.

As opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad braved the frontlines around Damascus to smuggle out tissue samples from victims of Wednesday's mass poisoning, Obama brushed over an interviewer's reminder that he once called chemical weapons a "red line" that could trigger U.S. action.

A White House spokesman reiterated Obama's position that he did not expect to have "boots on the ground" in Syria.

Obama's caution contrasted with calls for action from NATO allies, including France, Britain and Turkey, where leaders saw little doubt Assad's forces had staged pre-dawn missile strikes that rebels say killed between 500 and well over 1,000 people.

But two years into a civil war that has divided the Middle East along sectarian lines, a split between Western governments and Russia once again illustrated the international deadlock that has thwarted outside efforts to halt the killing.

While the West accused Assad of a cover-up by preventing the U.N. team from visiting the scene, Moscow said the rebels were impeding an investigation.

The United Nations released data showing that a million children were among refugees forced to flee Syria, calling it a "shameful milestone". And mosque bombings that left at least 42 dead and hundreds wounded in neighboring Lebanon were a reminder of how Syria's conflict has spread. But, for now, there seems little prospect of an end to the violence.

According to U.S. and European security sources, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have made a preliminary assessment that Syrian government forces did use chemical weapons in the attack this week and that the act likely had high-level approval from President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Obama played down the chances of Assad cooperating with the U.N. experts who might provide conclusive evidence of what happened, if given access soon.

Noting budget constraints, problems of international law and a continuing U.S. casualty toll in Afghanistan, Obama told CNN:

During the blackout, more than 3 million Time Warner Cable customers in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Dallas have been unable to watch CBS, and the companies have been unable to reach a new programming deal since their agreement expired in June.

The cable company notified customers on its website and by email that they could ask for basic indoor antennas at their local Time Warner Cable store. It also offered a $20 voucher for customers who want to buy antennas at Best Buy Co Inc.

"All blacked-out broadcast stations remain available over the air, and most households can receive the signals if they have the right equipment," the cable company said.

It also offered Amazon gift cards so customers can watch CBS programs, using Amazon's Internet streaming service.

CBS declined to comment on the offers.

Staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado resembles the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. The walls are covered in TV screens, displaying live images of the Sun captured by telescopes and spacecraft. Two men sit at curved desks in front of me, each surrounded by a bank of computer monitors. Their faces are lit by the dancing reflections of our nearest star in a range of spectra, through blue to red and dazzling white. One of them is taking a particular interest in a dark patch on the left side of the Sun, displayed as a bleached-out image on one of his screens.

“All these images are daunting, a bit like the Louvre for space weather,” says my guide, space scientist Joe Kunches.

Space weather refers to everything the Sun throws at us – from the continuous stream of charged particles it constantly spews out, called the solar wind, to the belches of eruptions, ejections and flares. The Earth is protected from this onslaught, to a large extent, by its magnetic field, which generates a shield or bubble around the planet known as the magnetosphere.

But what forecasters at the centre are watching out for is a particularly violent solar event: for instance, a geomagnetic storm that could penetrate the Earth’s natural defences, causing surges in electricity grid and disrupting power supplies; a radiation storm that bombards orbiting astronauts with a lethal dose of high energy particles; or radio interference that renders aircraft communications or GPS useless.

This year is supposed to be the year of the solar maximum, the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet this maximum has turned out to be a weak one so far, sunspot numbers and strong solar flares have been far below predicted values.

The solar max may have failed to live up to its violent billing up until now, but no-one here is complacent – hence the interest in the dark patch slowly evolving on the Sun, signifying a cluster of sunspots the size of our planet. “We want to understand where eruptions are most likely to occur,” says Kunches, “and in doing that, we look for strong magnetic fields and hotspots in the solar atmosphere.” By examining the conditions today, they can make decisions about the likelihood of an eruption.

Troops and police had taken relatively low-key security measures before the "Friday of Martyrs" processions that were to have begun from 28 mosques in the capital after weekly prayers.

But midday prayers were canceled at some mosques and few major protests unfolded in Cairo, although witnesses said at least 1,000 people staged a march in the Mohandiseen district.

There were no reports of violence in that procession, but the Brotherhood's website said one person had been killed in the Nile Delta town of Tanta in clashes with security forces. The Interior Ministry confirmed the death.

Brotherhood supporters also turned out in Alexandria, several Delta towns, the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, the north Sinai town of Rafah, and Assiut in the south, with minor skirmishes reported in some places.

The Health Ministry said 54 people had been wounded on Friday in Cairo and two Delta provinces, without giving any details of the violence or who was injured.

"We are not afraid; it's victory or death," said Mohamed Abdel Azim, a retired oil engineer who was among about 100 people marching slowly from a mosque near Cairo University.

"They intend to strike at Muslims," the grey-bearded Azim said. "We'd rather die in dignity than live in oppression. We'll keep coming out until there's no one left."

Despite his defiant words, the mood of the protesters seemed subdued, perhaps a sign that the crackdown and the round-up of Brotherhood leaders has chilled the rank-and-file.

Some marchers carried posters of Mursi, who was toppled by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on July 3 after huge demonstrations against his rule. "No to the coup," they chanted.

A militant Islamist group active in the lawless Sinai Peninsula threatened new attacks on the army and police. In a statement published on a jihadist website, the Salafi Jihadi group condemned security forces for what it called the "heinous crime" of killing Brotherhood supporters.

It was the first statement from any of the militant groups in the Sinai desert bordering Israel since last Wednesday's violent move by security forces on the Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo.

The number of attacks on security forces in Sinai has jumped since the army removed Mursi. Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 24 policemen on Monday.

"GOD WILL BRING DOWN SISI"

The sentence was not entirely unexpected, given that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales' decision in June to plead guilty to more than 30 criminal charges, including 16 premeditated murder counts, spared him the prospect of a death sentence. He also pleaded guilty on charges related to illicit steroid and alcohol use.

But it remained up to a jury of four officers and two enlisted personnel to decide whether Bales should be eligible for parole.

They decided Friday he is not, according to Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield with Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, meaning the 39-year-old will spend the rest of his life in a military prison.

Well before dawn on March 11, 2012, Bales slipped off from remote Camp Belambay in the Panjwai district of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province and entered one nearby village and then, after a brief return to the base, went to another village.

He left a trail of blood and gore in both villages, including nine children among the dead. Eleven of the victims came from the same family. Witnesses claimed that the U.S. soldier dragged some bodies of his victims' outside and set them ablaze.

The horror ended when Bales returned to Camp Belambay and turned himself in. In the subsequent hours and days, some spoke highly about Bales, such as attorney Emma Scanlan who described him as a "devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed service."

The massacre quickly spurred outrage in Afghanistan and around the world. The Taliban vowed to retaliate "by killing and beheading Americans anywhere in the country." Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggested, after meeting with villagers who'd seen the carnage and wanted Bales to be tried there to "heal our broken hearts," that the incident had put U.S.-Afghan relations at a breaking point.

"It is by all means the end of the rope here," Karzai said then. "The end of the rope that nobody can afford such luxuries anymore."

Bales was identified as the culprit days later and eventually put in solitary confinement at the U.S. military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The military announced last December that Bales faced a court-martial. The Army soldier spoke at this week's sentencing, calling what he'd done "an act of cowardice."

"He basically explained nicely that my job was to do the things that Mark (Zuckerberg) did not want to focus on as much," Sandberg said of the 2007 meeting that lasted several hours with the chief operating officer of Apple Inc.

"That was his job with Steve (Jobs). And he explained that the job would change over time and I should be prepared for that."

While Sandberg has enjoyed a steady run at Facebook, it is Cook's job that has changed radically since then. Now, the man who was handed one of the more daunting tasks in business - filling the shoes of the late Steve Jobs and keeping Apple on top - may himself need a spot of advice.

Two years into Cook's tenure, Apple is expected to unveil a redesigned iPhone next month. It will be a key moment for Cook. The company he inherited has become a very different creature: a mature corporate behemoth rather than a scrappy industry pioneer, with its share price down 5 percent this year, despite a recent rally. The S&P 500 is up about 15 percent this year.

A transition was, perhaps, inevitable after an astonishing five-year run in which Apple's headcount tripled, its revenues rose over six-fold, its profits grew 12-fold, and its stock price jumped from $150 to a peak of $705 last fall.

But it's been painful for some.

It is unclear whether the spread-sheeting-loving, consensus-oriented, even-keeled Cook can successfully reshape the cult-like culture that Jobs built. Though Cook has deftly managed the iPhone and iPad product lines, which continue to deliver enormous profits, Apple has yet to launch a major new product under Cook; talk of watches and televisions remains just that.

Some worry that Cook's changes to the culture have doused the fire - and perhaps the fear - that drove employees to try to achieve the impossible.

CAN NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST?

Cook is known as a workaholic who guards his privacy closely. People who know him well paint a portrait of a thoughtful, data-driven executive who knows how to listen and who can be charming and funny in small group settings.

Lisa Cooper, who went to high school with Cook in Robertsville, Alabama, and remains a friend, still laughs at memories of Cook staging prank photos for the school yearbook and crooning "The Way We Were" to her in class.

In the day to day at Apple, Cook has established a methodical, no-nonsense style, one that's as different as could be from that of his predecessor.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female," Manning, 25, said in the statement read on NBC News' "Today" show.

"Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," Manning said. "I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun."

Manning's lawyer David Coombs said on the program that he expected Manning to get a pardon from President Barack Obama.

Manning, a former junior intelligence analyst, was sentenced on Wednesday for turning over more than 700,000 classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks in the biggest breach of secret data in the nation's history.

The users are said to have "incited dissatisfaction with the government" by spreading rumours about a "hero" used in various propaganda posters.

Prosecutors said the group had been profiting from the activity.

The arrests come at a time when the Chinese authorities are seeking to reassert strict rules around public discourse.

"On one hand they know how popular this platform is, but they are also aware it can be a disruptive force," said BBCChinese.com editor Zhuang Chen.

"This is one of the main campaigns that the Chinese public security ministry is carrying out - to send out a clear message."

The arrested users were said to have spread rumours about Lei Feng, a deceased soldier who is often used as an example of the model Chinese citizen, a Communist Party devotee.

"Information that seriously harmed the image of Lei Feng was rapidly transmitted across the internet," the People's Daily reported, "and Lei Feng's glorious image was quickly brought into question."

Power users

With almost 300 million users in the country, the social network is booming - even attracting famous names from outside of the country.

The likes of Robert Downey Jr, Paris Hilton and basketball star Kobe Bryant all have a presence on the site - although they are mostly there for marketing purposes rather than the more general discussion often found on Twitter.

Earlier this month, the government brought together some of Sina Weibo's most popular users to discuss their use of the platform.

The meeting, held at the headquarters of China's state TV network, set out seven key "minimums" for behaviour.

They included vaguely set standards for upholding the national interest, keeping with socialist values and maintaining public order.

Racing through the city's scenic old quarter in the "Forza Motorsport 5" videogame is unnervingly realistic - not least thanks to the force-feedback steering wheel that makes the speeding driver struggle to keep control.

The upcoming Microsoft Xbox One game is also just one example of an increasingly symbiotic relationship between software developers and the auto industry. Together they get games fans behind the wheel and carmakers in pole position to woo today's younger consumers as tomorrow's car buyers.

Even if many of the players may not be able to afford to buy a car now, Volkswagen's Audi sponsors the game since it can start winning brand loyalty for the future. It is also well aware that driving games are not just enjoyed by the young.

"It's not just about reaching the youth - an Audi in a video game also reaches our core target group. Unlike in a movie where there is a straight narrative, a video game is interactive and the storyline is not defined in advance," said Kai Mensing, head of International Product Placement at the company.

Meanwhile Nissan competes on screens as a partner in Sony's rival PlayStation game "Gran Turismo", giving gamers the chance to enter a competition which starts with driving a Leaf electric car in their living rooms and could lead to actually racing a real 370Z sports car on Britain's Silverstone circuit.

"We take you all the way through to being a racing driver," said Gareth Dunsmore, general manager for marketing in Europe, adding that its "GT Academy" finalist Lucas Ordonez went on to a real world podium finish at the Le Mans 24 hour race in 2011.

Nissan's digital advertising spend has trebled in the last five years and is expected to top $500 million this year, roughly 25 percent of Nissan's overall advertising outlay.

"GT Academy is a great way for us to attract the gaming community to the brand. A million people have experienced this year driving an electric vehicle in a game," Dunsmore said.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT