Microsoft plans to invest one billion dollars in China R&D

Source: Economic Times India

BEIJING: Microsoft Corp said Thursday it plans to spend one billion dollars on research and development in China, suggesting a continued focus on
the country's huge market, despite the global financial downturn.

"Our investment in research and development in China over the next three years will exceed one billion dollars," said Zhang Yaqin, chairman of the company's China research and development group.

The investment would "greatly boost information technology innovation in Microsoft and China," he told reporters in Beijing.

"The one billion dollar investment over the three years is new investment which will focus on human resources and other resources linked to research and development," he said.

He said the investment did not include money spent on mergers and acquisitions, suggesting Microsoft's investments in China could actually be even larger over the next three years.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/ITeS/Microsoft_plans_to_invest_one_billion_dollars_in_China_RD/articleshow/3709329.cms

all their technology is being pirated, again!

If Windows 7 proves to be as big of a 'Turd' as Vista, I'll be going all Linux.

Most of my development is currently being done in the .Net framework and MS SQL Server. I know I could switch over to Mono and MySQL, but my clients are rather hesitant to make the jump just yet (this will change when Microsoft screws up the next OS, too).

Sounds like an attempt to set up an alternative to Redmond so they can move operations eventually.

but the stockholders will be happy. Same old story: the hell with U.S. workers, let's just make the rich, richer.

Break MS up NOW.

idiot..

"Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns."

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/bio.mspx

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

Ebocha, Nigeria — Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.


In Ebocha, where Justice lives, Dr. Elekwachi Okey, a local physician, says hundreds of flares at oil plants in the Niger Delta have caused an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. No definitive studies have documented the health effects, but many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer.

"We're all smokers here," Okey said, "but not with cigarettes."

The oil plants in the region surrounding Ebocha find it cheaper to burn nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas each day and contribute to global warming than to sell it. They deny the flaring causes sickness. Under pressure from activists, however, Nigeria's high court set a deadline to end flaring by May 2007. The gases would be injected back underground, or trucked and piped out for sale. But authorities expect the flares to burn for years beyond the deadline.

The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats.

Oil workers, for example, and soldiers protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation's efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting.

Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is located, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The rivers, Enyidah said, "became breeding grounds for all kinds of waterborne diseases."

The bright, sooty gas flares — which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium — lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children such as Justice Eta more susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate him against.

Investing for profit

AT the end of 2005, the Gates Foundation endowment stood at $35 billion, making it the largest in the world. Then in June 2006, Warren E. Buffett, the world's second-richest man after Bill Gates, pledged to add about $31 billion in installments from his personal fortune. Not counting tens of billions of dollars more that Gates himself has promised, the total is higher than the gross domestic products of 70% of the world's nations.

Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5% of its worth every year, to avoid paying most taxes. In 2005, it granted nearly $1.4 billion. It awards grants mainly in support of global health initiatives, for efforts to improve public education in the United States, and for social welfare programs in the Pacific Northwest.

It invests the other 95% of its worth. This endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune. Monica Harrington, a senior policy officer at the foundation, said the investment managers had one goal: returns "that will allow for the continued funding of foundation programs and grant making." Bill and Melinda Gates require the managers to keep a highly diversified portfolio, but make no specific directives.

By comparing these investments with information from for-profit services that analyze corporate behavior for mutual funds, pension managers, government agencies and other foundations, The Times found that the Gates Foundation has holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.

One of these investment rating services, Calvert Group Ltd., for example, endorses 52 of the largest 100 U.S. companies based on market capitalization, but flags the other 48 for transgressions against social responsibility. Microsoft Corp., which Bill Gates leads as board chairman, is rated highly for its overall business practices, despite its history of antitrust problems.

In addition, The Times found the Gates Foundation endowment had major holdings in:

Companies ranked among the worst U.S. and Canadian polluters, including ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Co. and Tyco International Ltd.

• Many of the world's other major polluters, including companies that own an oil refinery and one that owns a paper mill, which a study shows sicken children while the foundation tries to save their parents from AIDS.

• Pharmaceutical companies that price drugs beyond the reach of AIDS patients the foundation is trying to treat.

Using the most recent data available, a Times tally showed that hundreds of Gates Foundation investments — totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41% of its assets, not including U.S. and foreign government securities — have been in companies that countered the foundation's charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy.

This is "the dirty secret" of many large philanthropies, said Paul Hawken, an expert on socially beneficial investing who directs the Natural Capital Institute, an investment research group. "Foundations donate to groups trying to heal the future," Hawken said in an interview, "but with their investments, they steal from the future."


Much More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story

and they stated at the time that they were trying to revamp their investment criteria. Something a little more recent....

http://seekingalpha.com/article/66162-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-holdings-outperforming-s-p-500-handily

Longtime (25-yr) Monsanto VP Rob Horsch is one of the Gates Foundation bigwigs, plus Monsanto personnel working in their "projects".

Gates' interest in biotech, pharma & ag is agenda-oriented. The Foundation is a vehicle.

a bad thing? Notice how well they've done compared to the S&P. How is the Steve Jobs foundation doing these days?

What do you think Gates is funding, & why?

Guess he is part of the conspiracy.

Large foundations are a means to preserve large chunks of tax-free capital & use it to direct policy & investment.

You're a fool if you think Bill & Warren just want to "help people".

Guess you should just be like Steve Jobs and just do not give money to anyone. That seems like the way to go :eyes:. I am curious how the Gates foundation is directing policy. Its a pretty straightforward charitable foundation that has donated a ton of money and continues to do so.

the aim of large foundations. "Herding people," "managing people," "controlling people" - while assuring profits - is more apt.

How they support policy?

For starters, Gates is making huge investments in biotech, planting & supporting research establishments in various countries, funding plantings of GMO crops, training personnel, creating infrastructure & distribution networks & future patents, using land, etc.

Supposedly to "improve crop yields" etc. in poor peasant economies - as if "crop yields" are the main reason some folks are starving or malnourished.

Bullshit.

During the historic Irish & Indian famines, thousands of tons of food was being shipped out of countries while people starved.

It's no different today, e.g. per UN & FAO figures, 548,000 tons of international food aid was shipped to Sudan in in 2007 - but Sudan itself produced & exported 534,000 tons of food - & in the midst of war/conflict, to boot.

Study this, & similar historic/geographic cases, & you start realizing something is rotten in the "charity" biz.

Gates is also funding initiatives that monetize formerly peasant economies & upset the power balances/authority structures within them. The highly hyped "microlending" initiatives for one.


Locally, e.g. Gates Foundation pays 1/3 of the salary of the President of the Discovery Institute - a think tank whose main agenda is promotion of "intelligent design" & its teaching in the schools. Gates also committed to funding of 10 million for the institute. Ostensibly for research on regional transportation initiatives.

Riddle me this: why would "liberal" (ha) Gates fund a right-wing think tank to study regional transportation in the Pacific NW? Are there no non-political groups working on the same issue? (answer = yes). Are there no liberal think-tanks in the area? (answer = yes). Are there no existing studies, etc. (Answer = yes).


Most people who praise philanthropists have never looked too deeply into their actual practices. Philanthropy has a long history of use as a policy arm, & nothing has changed.

Gates, Soros, Buffett et al are not "the good guys". There are no good guys.

Gates, I'll assume you're referring to Bill, is not involved with the investment decisions of the foundation.

Bill Gates

Co-Chair and Trustee Bill Gates shapes and approves foundation strategies, reviews results, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and helps set the overall direction of the organization.

Melinda French Gates

Co-chair and TrusteeMelinda Gates shapes and approves foundation strategies, reviews results, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and helps set the overall direction of the organization.

William Gates Sr.

Co-chairWilliam H. Gates Sr. guides the vision and strategic direction of the foundation and serves as an advocate for the foundation’s key issues.


Buffett specified with his gift that when the Gates or their children stop managing the foundation, his money stops.


It was announced not too long after that the Foundation will disburse all its monies within 50 years of Bill & Melinda's deaths.


Perhaps by "investment" you mean what the funds' principal is invested in.

I'm talking about what the Gates are spending the money on: that's the "investment" - not the paper, but the nuts & bolts networks they're building.

Where in this do you get that he picks their investments?

May want to read this.

http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/4677/gates-foundation-picks-microsoft-veteran-as-new-ceo

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/leadership/Pages/overview.aspx

BG has retired from MS to devote more time to the fnd, more time than he did when Stonesifer was his fnd lieutenant.


<<Mr. Raikes will probably work even more closely with Bill and Melinda Gates than Ms. Stonesifer did. In September, after giving up most of his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft, Bill Gates will focus his attention on the foundation. Melinda Gates now spends about half her time on foundation activities.

Ms. Gates said her husband will become more deeply involved in setting strategy for the foundation, but that he will not meddle with Mr. Raikes’ leadership.

“He in no way wants to be involved in day-to-day leadership,” Ms. Gates said.>>


From that last sentence you deduce Gates has nothing to do with foundation investments, either financial (investing principal) or philanthropic. Here's how it works:

BG says: "Move into biotech" (strategy) & Raikes & his lieutenants check out possibilities & bring the results to the Gates for their OK.


The Gates (inc Bill Sr) direct both, & strategically. Their employees carry out the Gates' vision.

"Bill Gates shapes and approves foundation strategies, reviews results, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and helps set the overall direction of the organization."


Notice where Raikes is in the pecking order.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/leadership/Pages/overview.aspx

When they say strategy, they are talking about where the foundation is going to put it resourses, ie what charities. Gates is not a fund manager and would be ill qualified to make actual investment decisions. That is what Warren Buffet is for.

makes:

1. They invest their principal into stocks, bonds, etc.
2. They invest the interest into "philanthropies".

The "philanthropies" in many cases = real investment, i.e. they build plant, support research establishments, develop products, etc.

Neither you nor I know exactly what goes on in foundation HQ, & you have no idea what Buffett "is there for".

What we do know is that the Gates family (3 people) reputedly spends most of its time on foundation work, that Gates reputedly retired to spend more time on it, & that Buffett made his gift conditional on the Gates family being in charge. We know BG has the reputation of being a "hands-on" manager.

We also know what the foundation supports with its $$, e.g. biotech, genetic engineering, drug trials in the 3rd world (things that produce patents) financial services for 3rd world females, the Discovery Institute, etc.

We also know the history of foundations: that they have always been used by the wealthy to achieve political, economic & social goals.


Your take on what we know & mine are different.



BTW, your contention that BG is "unqualified" to pick stocks is ludicrous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_foundation

You can also go through the literature on their website, but wiki gives a pretty good summary. They lend monumental support to some pretty noble causes. The amount of their donations is staggering.


Your contention that BG is qualified to pick stocks is ludicrous. Just because he ran a major corporation does not make him a whiz at picking investments.

more than you apparently have. I know what they fund, & where.

There's a reality behind the website pr.


And I'm sure that BG knows more about what's going on in the business world than 99% of the population, which makes him eminently qualified to pick stocks.

You know their "real" agenda? Did they make you where one of those octopus rings?

Yep, just like all CEO's :sarcasm:

I can posts the joint projects with Monsanto, the drug studies with 3rd-world children, scholarly studies on foundations, the history of the Ford Foundation's work undermining democracy in latin america, the rockefellers' strike-breaking & eugenics work, ad infinitum.

There's a long history.

The benevolent face of foundations hides a lot of dirt, & you're a fool if you buy into the pr.

Small groups of people, even the most well-intentioned (which Gates & Buffett aren't, they had no history of "niceness" prior to their foundation work), should not be able to direct capital pools equivalent to the GDP of nations.

If you believe in real democracy, you believe that much.

http://www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsCoverageDetail.asp?nid=107

http://www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsCoverageDetail.asp?nid=116

http://www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsCoverageDetail.asp?nid=166

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/07/28/focus22.html?jst=s_cn_hl

http://www.napawash.org/resources/peirce/peirce_7_14_01.html

Danforth = Monsanto

http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/gates-foundations-agriculture-aid-hard.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=qs4m2MelhoAC&dq=foundations+roelofs&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html

Irish potato fAmine:

http://www.wolfetonesofficialsite.com/famine.htm

"Under the system at the time Irish food was exported mainly to English markets but from they're found its way to many parts of the world. It puzzled many to hear there was famine in a land that had so much food to export."

Indian famines:

NYT 1900

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F00E0D71339E733A25757C0A9609C946197D6CF

"For example, two of the worst famine-afflicted areas in the Madras Presidency, the districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam, continued to export grains throughout the famine.<10> The table below shows exports and imports for the two districts during a five-year period beginning in 1892.<10>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_famine_of_1896%E2%80%9397

Sudan: food exports

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/16176.html


there's plenty more.

So you are just against Monsanto? Once again we're back to investments and not their philanthropic donations.

You're confused: those aren't investments of principal, the Gates philanthopy funds those ventures.

Do you understand the difference?

The foundation has an endowment. The endowment is invested in stocks, bonds, whatever.

They take the interest on the endowment (& sometimes some of the principal) & give it to people, e.g. so many millions to the Danforrth Plant Center for research, etc.

Everything I linked was charitable gifts.

I did not get that from the first link, but I read through some of the others and they do discuss donations. I do not see this as a bad thing. GM crops have the potential to end blindness from Vitamin A deficiency as well as several other horrible dietary deficiencies. I have an ex-girlfriend who was "genetically modified." It greatly extended her life.

There are hundreds of foods containing vitamin A & forms of carotene which the body can convert to vitamin A, & most of them are cheap & easy to grow & raise, e.g. eggs, carrots.

The only people who are vitamin A deficient are:

1. People who don't get enough food, period
2. People who don't get a varied diet, e.g. eat something like rice & beans for every meal
3. People who have some kind of metabolic/absorption problem.

If people don't get enough food or enough variety, the most usual reason is: they're dirt poor. In that case, the solution isn't to spend millions to develop genetically modified rice & beans containing more nutrients, the solution is to raise them from poverty - give them land to grow crops, give them jobs paying more than $1/day.

If they have a metabolic problem, plant breeding won't help them either.

But it will help the rich people who own the patents for the new food varieties. Especially if they can get farmers to plant them to the exclusion of traditional varieties.

I have no idea what you could be talking about when you say your friend was genetically modified.

Monsanto.

Why do you think the Foundation hired him, because he's such a freaking nice guy & wants to "help people"?

No, they hired him because of his vast experience in genetic modification of foods & medicines, & his industry contacts.

Thanks for posting.

Guess he is part of the conspiracy?

Major O-U-T-S-O-U-R-C-I-N-G.

China doesn't respect intellectual property, so I cannot see how they expect to benefit in the 'Research' dept. This just smells.

to become the next world leader.

Besides, if Microsoft goes overseas, they are far more likely to move most operations to India.

I didn't say they 'need' the help. I KNOW China is next world leader and it's going to be much sooner than we think.

shi-shi.

spring up de nova?

Gates is investing a billion dollars. That buys a lot in China.

And getting one.

But it may just make it more of the threat to democracy! How about some help here? Right now the US is struggling!

Unlike Apple which forces you to use itunes for everything? I am fan of neither, but I realize my iphone is made in China.

of people to blame Gates for the evils in thier own life.

springs from the same psychological source.

And see what happens when BozoBilly Gates files a lawsuit for "intellectual property infringement" in a Chinese court. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

if they did this place would be the first group complaining about it.

They're also setting up R&D's everywhere but the U.S.

they will regret this

:nopity:

This could be the decision that signals the end of Microsoft as the dominant force within the computer industry.

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