Though Microsoft’s CES keynote may not have contained any earth-shattering product news, there was apparently one little gem thrown in to entertain the crowd. As part of the keynote, which is the company’s last, Microsoft showed a video that recapped …

Microsoft and Skype just announced that Microsoft is buying Skype for $8.5 billion in cash, and that the deal has already been approved by both boards of directors. Skype is being sold by an investment group led by Silver Lake …

After an impressive return to glory with Windows 7, after the negativity surrounding Vista, Bill Gates Steve Ballmer’s gang doesn’t appear to be resting on their laurels. The apparent goal for the next version of the Windows operating system is …

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced several new features for Windows Phone today in a keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. One feature is a "dramatically enhanced" version of Internet Explorer 9, which will become available for the mobile operating system in the second half of this year. 

President Obama appointed General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt as chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. 

Having worked with Immelt in the past, Ballmer apparently wanted the world to know where he stands. He released the following statement on the Official Microsoft blog:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online today at an event in Redmond.  This is the cloud-based version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, which will go head to head with other cloud-based CRM products from companies like Salesforce.com and Oracle. 

The Consumer Elecronics Show (CES) in Vegas has already been a big event for Microsoft, and it doesn’t even end until January 9. CEO Steve Ballmer reflected on the past year, and introduced some elements of where the company is headed. 

Reports indicate that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil some new slates from Samsung and Dell at CES next month that are designed to compete with Apple’s incredibly popular iPad. 

The company has not confirmed, and the sources of the info are unnamed, but evidently trusted by the New York Times, which reports: 

Brace yourself for another round of rumors about acquisitions, partnerships, and funding possibilities.  Steve Ballmer and Dick Costolo supposedly met for breakfast this week, and it’s a rare person who will imagine all they discussed was the fat content of donuts.

To be fair: no one’s claimed that they observed the CEOs of Microsoft and Twitter signing a single document or even talking shop.  Plus, the source of the rumor hasn’t been cited.

The most populous city in America has decided to turn for Microsoft for a cloud computing solution.  New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met in person to announce a partnership-in-the-making earlier today.

Microsoft said today it would launch a tablet computer before the Christmas shopping season in an effort to take on Apple’s iPad.

"You’ll see new slates with Windows on them. You’ll see them this Christmas," he told an audience of students, staff and journalists at the London School of Economics.

The next time you hear Steve Ballmer saying that he wants Microsoft to succeed in the mobile market, do not doubt his sincerity.  A proxy statement released by Microsoft yesterday revealed that Ballmer essentially lost $670,000 due to the company’s poor performance.

Last week, Eric Schmidt stated in an interview that Bing, not Apple or Facebook, is Google’s biggest competitor.  Now Steve Ballmer has responded, essentially agreeing and indicating that Bing will continue to innovate and pose a threat.

Microsoft’s CEO told Sharon Pian Chan with respect to Schmidt’s comment, "He’s right! . . .  We’re his best competitor, and we’re a very good competitor and we’re going to do a very good job."

Microsoft feels threatened by the iPad. That was made clear by the words of CEO Steve Ballmer at Microsoft’s financial analysts meeting. Microsoft intends to come out swinging with Windows-based iPad rivals. It’s just a matter of when, and if customers will have anywhere near the same enthusiasm they have had for the ipad.

The tablet PC market may not be an easy one for Google – and its new operating system – to enter.  Steve Ballmer indicated this morning that Microsoft is "hardcore" about the field, and will be launching more than a few models before the end of this year.

Steve Ballmer just previewed the new Windows Live Messenger beta during his "Five Dimensions of Cloud Computing" speech to students at the Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil. Windows Live Messenger has over 320 million active consumers every month who send 10 billion messages to one another every day, a Microsoft representative tells WebProNews.

In case you missed it, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke at SMX West in Santa Clara yesterday, addressing the search marketing industry for the first time (you can watch that at our new site live.webpronews.com). Obviously, much of the conversation was centered around Bing.

Update: I’m going to go ahead an liveblog the keynote here as well. To watch it live (or archived), go to live.webpronews.com.

Begin Live Blogging

11:46EST: I hear Eddie Vedder’s voice playing somewhere while everyone finds their seats and waits patiently for the event to begin.

11:49: A little surprised there aren’t more seats taken up by now.

11:57: Getting close now.

About 10 days ago, Steve Ballmer indicated that he didn’t share Google’s views with regards to China; Ballmer said that Microsoft would continue operating in China regardless of recent hacks and a policy of censorship.  Today, Bill Gates more or less echoed those sentiments.

In case you were wondering, Microsoft doesn’t plan to let the whole Google-China brouhaha affect its business strategy.  Steve Ballmer recently indicated that his company will more or less stay the course and throw Bing into the regional mix.

Part of the reason behind this decision might be that Microsoft hasn’t bought into the theory that China’s government participated in the hack that upset Google.  Or that it just felt unthreatened by it.

Microsoft’s CEO isn’t getting ahead of himself; for the time being, Steve Ballmer’s taking a "first things first" approach.  However, he indicated today that if the proposed U.S.-only Microsoft-Yahoo search partnership goes through, an international agreement may follow.

The expected growth rate for IT employment of 3 percent per year is more than three times the rate of growth of total employment and a solid indicator that investing in IT will contribute to economic recovery and growth, according to a new study by Microsoft and IDC.