May 11 - 4:55pm EDT   The world's largest software vendor, Microsoft, is selling bonds for the first time as of today. Despite having $25 billion in cash, the company has at least enough demand for $15 billion in bonds, an investor says. According to a Monday WSJ report, the company will sell notes that mature in five, 10 or 30 years. The prospectus says net proceeds from the sale will be used for general corporate purposes such as working capital, capital expenditures and repurchases of capital stock. [full story]

March 12 - 10:30am EDT   SAP and Sybase are collaborating on applications for the iPhone and other cellphones, says Reuters. SAP's business management software is in the process of being shrunk by Sybase, which already produces generic scaling tools for the broader market. The latter company is also known for developing iAnywhere, intermediate software used to bridge iPhones with corporate e-mail networks that have stricter security standards. [full story]

December 7 - 11:50am EST   The iPhone is gaining popularity with businessmen and corporations in spite of its focus, Reuters writes. The phone is nominally a combination of an iPod with typical smartphone applications, but its execution is such that major companies -- like SAP and Salesforce -- have allowed sales and finance teams to use it for work outside the office. SAP recently announced that it would release an iPhone version of its customer relationship management software, but more importantly, before new versions were available for traditional "business" phones such as the RIM BlackBerry or the Palm Treo. The cause of this was reportedly SAP's own salespeople, who were demanding the ... [full story]