Microsoft has named 22-year company veteran Satya Nadella as its next chief executive, ending a protracted search for a new leader after Steve Ballmer announced his intention to retire in August.

STEPHEN Bernasconi walked into his local shopping centre on Nov 25 intending to buy a laptop. His three-year-old Dell Inspiron had broken down and he wanted something to keep up with gaming.

Microsoft is to buy the Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia for €5.4bn.

So now we know that Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, plans to retire within the next year.

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer announced his retirement today, saying eh would step doen within 12 months, once a successor is found.

Microsoft is reshuffling its business in an attempt to promote faster innovation and a sharper focus on devices and services. The move comes amid a steady decline in demand for PCs as people turn to tablets and other mobile gadgets.

The EU has fined Microsoft €561m for failing to offer users a choice of web browser, an unprecedented sanction that will act as a warning to other firms involved in EU antitrust disputes.

It is the kind of advertising money could not buy — the publishers of 3,000 magazines read by millions of Europeans paying homage to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the people of this island.

Microsoft launched a radical redesign of its world-dominating Windows operating system last night, introducing a touch-enabled interface that attempts to bridge the gap between personal computers and fast-growing mobile devices powered by the company's competitors.

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head of design, has emerged as a totemic figure.

Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its Office suite of programs in its largest-ever overhaul of the aging workplace software it relies on for most of its profit.

Microsoft’s new tablet computers are no threat to Apple’s iPad, given the lack of enthusiasm among developers to create applications that run on the new Windows operating system, analysts said.

Microsoft has unveiled Surface, a tablet computer to compete with Apple's iPad.

Microsoft’s fared better than analysts anticipated in its latest quarter, boosted by a surprising rise in sales of its Windows operating system for personal computers.

Microsoft has let consumers start trying out its upcoming touch-based Windows 8 operating system, which aims to power a new wave of computer tablets and traditional PCs designed to counter Apple’s big gains in the market through its Macs and iPads.

Microsoft today let consumers start trying out its upcoming touch-based Windows 8 operating system, which aims to power a new wave of computer tablets and traditional PCs designed to counter Apple’s big gains in the market through its Macs and iPads.

As Steven Sinofsky prepares for the release of Windows 8, the world waits to see if it will restore the Microsoft brand and set him up for its top job, writes Bill Rigby

THE world’s biggest technology trade show will feature razor-thin laptops, powerful smartphones and flat-screen TVs, but talk in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) halls, which kicked off last night, may focus on whether the show itself has a long-term future.

WITH the eurozone close to the cliff’s edge, elected politicians are giving way to the technocrats, or else being forced to kowtow to them.

Internet video chat service Skype is now officially a part of Microsoft.

Bill Gates’ successor as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, is leaving the company after five years.

Microsoft today launched Windows Phone 7 as it bids to establish itself in the mobile market.

The European Commission has approved a tie up between Microsoft and Yahoo, as the software giant seeks to narrow the gap between its Bing search engine and global leader Google.

Microsoft is expected to unveil a major revamp of its phone software next week.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down as chief executive, ending a rocky reign marked by his refusal to sell the internet company to Microsoft for $48bn (€38bn) – more than triple Yahoo’s current market value.

SENSING the start of a personal computer revolution, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to start Micro-Soft and pursue a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home.

Internet giant Yahoo! said today it was willing to talk to Microsoft about a potential takeover deal, but wants the software firm to up its US$41bn (€26.1bn) proposal.

Wall Street retrenched today, closing sharply lower as investors showed their cautious side and cashed in profits from the market's best week in nearly five years.

A larger-than-expected drop in house building gave Wall Street a mixed performance today, but the Dow Jones industrials had their third straight record close.

TO say that the Chinese love to gamble would be a gross cultural generalisation. Then again, one could be excused for assuming as much, considering how the world’s gaming industry is going after China’s gamblers.

MICROSOFT Corp, the world’s largest software maker, said fourth-quarter profit fell 24% after the company spent more on its Xbox video-game console.

THE European Parliament has rejected a law on patents for software, ending a three-year effort by companies including Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG to counter US domination of Europe’s $60 billion (€50.3bn) market.

Microsoft has met its midnight deadline to submit a compromise on its landmark anti-trust case with the European Union and EU regulators will likely assess the proposal for weeks before deciding whether to impose fines, officials said today.

The European Union said today it expects to make a decision on whether to impose new fines on Microsoft Corporation by the end of July.

The European Union said its anti-trust regulators might need several weeks to decide whether to slap Microsoft Corp. with huge fines once a midnight deadline on Tuesday for the software maker to comply with a landmark ruling expires.

The European Union’s head office has given Microsoft until the end of the month to come up with satisfactory proposals to settle the landmark case against the software producer or face punitive sanctions, an EU official said today.

A meeting between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and the European Union’s anti-trust chief failed to settle the main outstanding differences over the EU’s landmark case against the software giant, the EU said today.

Wall Street reversed a three-day slide today as investors returned to the market in search of bargains, shrugging off high-tech profit warnings and an analyst downgrade of Internet stocks.

Software giant Microsoft last night announced it would boost the fight against computer piracy, by reinforcing computer security systems.

Microsoft has said it is going to appeal the €497m fine set by European regulators for abusing its dominant market position.

MICROSOFT, the world’s largest personal computer software company, is expected to be fined up to $404 million and given a deadline to permit rivals using its operating systems next week.

Settlement talks with Microsoft failed today and the EU’s anti-trust chief said he would propose that a precedent-setting ruling against the US software giant be adopted next week.

MICROSOFT CORP chief executive officer Steve Ballmer and general counsel Brad Smith held talks with the European Commission yesterday in an effort to settle row over the world’s largest software maker allegedly abusing the dominance of Windows to stifle competition.

Microsoft is applying Wild West bounties to modern Internet crimes, and has set aside $ 5m (€4.3m) to pay large cash rewards to people who help authorities capture and prosecute the creators of damaging computer viruses.