Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is shuffling the top management of its MSN portal, six months after rolling out a major redesign of the site. The company has hired Ted Cahall, who left his post as CTO of AOL (NYSE: AOL) in January, as its new corporate vice president of MSN.

Microsoft’s MSN, which introduced new ‘Local Edition’ pages as part of its big homepage overhaul earlier this year, is now adding localized deals to those pages as part of a relationship with Gannett-owned ShopLocal. The ‘Local Edition’ pages, which let visitors see local weather, traffic, news stories, and restaurant reviews…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is taking the stage at Microsoft’s analyst day to talk about the company’s consumer businesses, saying that “a lot of the issues we see in our consumer businesses are very much on the minds of the shareholders.” That’s an understatement, considering that the lackluster…

Embattled CEO Steve Ballmer might* have some cause for cheer: Robust demand for PCs helped drive up sales of Microsoft’s software over the last three months, as the company reported its third consecutive quarter of increasing net income and revenue. The company said that sales jumped 22 percent to $16.04…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q0409	Net Inc. vs Q0409
Microsoft	Release		22%	48%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) appears ready to take more of its Zune services outside the U.S. for the first time, using Windows Phone 7 as a beachhead. One observer spotted this website inviting UK sign-ups to Microsoft’s all-you-can-eat Zune Pass music service, with unlimited streaming and downloads, priced at £8.99 a…

MSN’s latest content partnership: A deal with GrindNetworks to launch a new “comedy channel” called theBubble. The video-heavy site, which launched today, is centered around a web show of the same name; it also features viral videos and other “funny” clips. The partnership follows others that MSN has reached with…

Production firm BermanBraun is looking at teaming up with MSNBC.com on a new content site that intends to serve as the intersection for celebrity and politics news, Mediaweek reports, citing unidentified sources. The project is related to BermanBraun’s work with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) portal MSN’s entertainment channel Wonderwall. The site…

After ditching the TV Upfront spectacle for the last two years in favor of much smaller presentations related to its fall programming, NBC has asked Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) to help get the word out online. The web promotions will kick off during next week’s broadcast upfront events. Microsoft will feature…

Wonderwall, round two? Microsoft’s MSN and BermanBraun are hoping to duplicate the celebrity site’s success with Glo, a new lifestyle site they are launching today, along with publisher Hachette Filipacchi. Like WonderWall—which BermanBraun and MSN unveiled a year ago—Glo is trying to break into a crowded market, in part by…

After a month-long delay, Microsoft’s overhaul of the MSN homepage is going live to the site’s 100 million users over the next two weeks. Perhaps the three most significant of the 30 updates Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has made since announcing that a redesign was coming to MSN last November: Headlines…

It apparently can’t be an Olympics without dueling claims from both Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and NBC on whose Olympics website is tops. The headline of Yahoo’s release today: “Yahoo Sports Dominates Winter Olympics Traffic.” And here’s NBC’s: “NBCOlympics.com On MSN Leads All Competitors Through First Weekend Of Vancouver Games” (The…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) seems intent on making a big entry into the social games space. The company announced a week ago that it would bring titles from social game giant Zynga to its online properties, including MSN and Windows Live Messenger, and now Bloomberg reports that Microsoft is in talks…

Zynga‘s social games—which are already played by upwards of 230 million people each month—are about to get even more reach. The company is bringing some of its titles to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) properties, including MSN Games and, intriguingly, Windows Live Messenger. To start off, Zynga says that people will now…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Morningstar and Citigroup are backing Bundle.com, a new social finance site, which the three companies are pitching as a resource for consumers who want to see how their spending lines up with their peers. The site, which was incubated at Citigroup, lets users set filters for age,…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) says it is making some “tweaks” to its overhaul of the MSN home page before it rolls it out more broadly. In its initial announcement three months ago, Microsoft carefully never said exactly when the full launch was coming, only that it would take place “early next…

That rumored Apple-rival slate isn’t being unveiled, but Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is announcing some minor pieces of news during his keynote this evening at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Highlights: —Microsoft’s Bing search engine will be the default search engine on HP PCs worldwide; previously,…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has reached yet another content partnership for its MSN portal, which it is in the process of relaunching. The company is teaming up with News Corp.-owned online videogame network IGN, which is providing content for a new videogame channel on MSN; IGN will also sell ads on…

Microsoft’s MSN, which has made local content a focus as part of its recent home page redesign, is now adding local video clips to its pages as the result of deals it has reached with NBC Local Media and Hearst Television. Starting in January, MSN will include about 3,000 news…

The local space is heating up, with the number of hyperlocal news startups growing by the month and the big-three portals also doubling down. Given their big traffic numbers and financial might, it’s with the big portals that things could get interesting. AOL (NYSE: TWX), MSN and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO)…