Ford CEO (and former Boeing president) Alan Mulally personally delivered a Ford Fusion hybrid with Microsoft SYNC technology Tuesday to the Microsoft campus in Redmond. The car was Ford’s 1 millionth car produced with Microsoft technology aboard. Flanked by cameras and reporters, the chief executives of two of the world’s most well-known brands were a welcome picture of advanced technology meeting auto maker. [24×7]
Amazon Shareholders Meet Thursday
Amazon.com holds its annual shareholder meeting at 9 a.m. this Thursday at the Seattle Art Museum.
In recent news from the I-tailer, Amazon’s filed suit against Discovery Communications on May 15, alleging infringement of patents covering search engine and recommendation technology by an e-commerce site run by Discovery. Amazon said it also filed counterclaims in connection with Discovery’s suit, which was filed in federal court in Delaware. [24×7]
Microsoft and Netflix Enhance Movie and TV Watching on the PC
Microsoft has announced more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix Inc., the world’s largest online movie rental service, are now available to watch instantly on the PC using Windows Media Center on PCs with Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate.
The availability of Netflix in Windows Media Center marks the second recent content milestone for Windows, following the March 2009 launch of the Sports Channel, which offers a variety of interactive sports content from CBSSports.com, FOX Sports, MSNBC.com and more. [24×7]
CEO Summit Goes Incognito
Writing for The Microsoft Blog on seattlepi.com, Seattle news gatherer Andrea James opines that last week’s big event on the Redmnd campus was largely overlookd by the media, even while 105 CEOs descended on our backyard representing about $2.9 trillion in annual sales and 8.9 million employees.
“Among the names released were Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. The three-day meeting began May 19 at the Microsoft campus in Redmond.
If these leaders were elected officeholders meeting as a public body, their gathering would have probably been subject to open meetings laws. There’s no such sunshine law for the meetings of leaders of private companies.
Microsoft has been hosting these summits for 13 years, and they’ve become a world-class forum. The event was closed to the media, though Tom Brokaw and Time Magazine’s Rick Stengel attended as panel moderators. Their elite attendance will not generate media coverage. Should the press have been invited?
One of the topics was “Technology Trends That Will Change the Economics of Business.” Here’s a big technology change: The Internet has fueled a worldwide conversation – about everything.
But the public had no participation in this conversation. They couldn’t even listen in. Nor can they read about it: There will be no transcript nor minutes made public. [24×7]
