Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Weekend News: Krugman’s Thoughts, Best Buy & More

Editor’s Note: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire as company faces needed shake-up (The Guarduan)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has stepped into a new and uncertain era with the announcement that CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within 12 months, triggering a search for a successor to take over the software behemoth. The announcement on Friday surprised analysts and investors and sent shares surging, reflecting belief that the company will benefit from new leadership as it tries to innovate and chase the market for smartphones and tablets.

Microsoft, Motorola set for second round of trial over patents (Reuters)
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) takes on Google’s Motorola Mobility unit this week in the second of two landmark trials between the companies that delve into hot disputes over the patents behind smartphone and Internet technology. The jury trial, starting Monday in federal court in Seattle, is set to resolve whether Motorola breached its contract with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to license on reasonable terms its so-called standard essential patents, covering wireless and video technology used in the Xbox game console.

Paul Krugman On The Inevitable Decline Of Apple And Microsoft (Forbes)
Paul Krugman’s got a couple of posts up that together point out the inevitability of the eventual decline of both Apple  and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). One’s already happening of course, the other is still to come. What’s particularly interesting about Krugman’s views here is not that he’s a New York Times columnist, nor even that he’s a Nobel Laureate economist (and forgive me but I rate him very highly as that second and not very much as that first) but that that Nobel was awarded for his findings in exactly the area where Microsoft and Apple operate, what has allowed their success.

Microsoft releases to manufacturing Windows 8.1: Sources (ZDNet)
Word is Microsoft has released Windows 8.1 to manufacturing. There’s still no indication that developers or users are going to get the gold bits before October 18.

Why are Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung so interested in Best Buy? (The Next Web)
Shopping is dead. Long live shopping. Okay, so maybe we should clarify that a bit. Brick-and-mortar stores are becoming a tad bit passé. Customers are flocking to sites like Amazon, eBay, and other online retailers to get what they want. I jokingly asked a friend if they wanted to go to Costco one weekend and they replied that they now order everything through Amazon Prime. You can get anything ordered online.