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The firm shares updated stats, showing that it's grown the percentage of women in its overall workforce from 24 percent to 29 percent -- though in tech positions the figure is lower.

Microsoft Executive Vice President of Human Resources Lisa Brummel. In an email to staff, she says that though progress is being made in diversifying the workforce, there's a lot of work to be done. Mat Hayward/Getty Images Women now comprise 29 percent of Microsoft's worldwide workforce, up from 24 percent over the past year, according to new figures released by the company.

Microsoft made available new diversity stats and launched a new diversity and inclusion Web site on October 3.

Other new data the company shared today:

The number of Microsoft senior executive women and minorities rose from 24 percent to 27 percent in the past year.The percentage of women and minorities on the Microsoft board of directors is up from 33 percent to 40 percent compared with last year.

Microsoft's workforce is currently 60.6 percent Caucasian, 28.9 percent Asian, 5.1 percent Hispanic/Latino, 3.5 percent American/African Black, 1.2 percent multiracial, .5 percent American Indian/Alaskan native and .3 percent Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

When looking at the Microsoft tech (versus nontech) workforce, the percentage of women is a lower 17.1 percent, according to Microsoft's data.

Comparatively, Google's latest diversity data showed its workforce was 30 percent women and 61 percent Caucasian.

Lisa Brummel, Microsoft's executive vice president of human resources, sent an email to all employees to mark the release of the latest information.

Here's her email to all full-time employees:

I've recently received a number of questions from employees due to the increased industry focus on diversity. I want to take this opportunity to share a report on diversity and inclusion at Microsoft with you.

Microsoft has a long history of substantial investment and engagement in promoting diversity and inclusion in our workforce. As part of that commitment, we started sharing data regarding the diversity of our employee population in 1998, and have publicly posted diversity data on www.microsoft.com on a voluntary basis since 2006. We recently updated our data to include our newest employees from Nokia and added additional detail. You can also find our updated diversity data here. As you look at the data, you will see that we are in generally the same position as others in our industry. In our 20+ years of committed efforts toward managing diversity and inclusion effectively, what we've learned is that diversity is not a finite goal that can simply be achieved, then "checked off" a list; it is a journey that requires constant self-assessment and recommitment.

Diversity and inclusion are a business imperative. Diversity needs to be a source of strength and competitive advantage for us. Our customer base is increasingly diverse. As our business evolves to focus more on end-to-end customer experiences, having a diverse employee base will better position Microsoft to anticipate, respond to and serve the needs of the changing marketplace. And representation itself is not enough - we must also create an inclusive work environment that enables us to capitalize on the diverse perspectives, ideas and innovative solutions of our employees.

Over the past year, we made continued progress in increasing the diversity of our workforce and leadership, including:

Growing the percentage of women in our global workforce from 24 to 29 percent.Increasing the number of Microsoft senior executive women and minorities from 24 to 27 percent. Raising the percentage of women and minorities on the Microsoft board of directors from 33 to 40 percent.

Have we made progress? Yes, we certainly have, and I am proud of the progress we have made. But we can all agree that much work remains to be done to increase the diversity of our company and the tech industry.

We have a strong history to build upon. We are expanding the pipeline for the next generation of technology leaders through science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs like DigiGirlz, Blacks at Microsoft Minority Student Day and our new global Microsoft YouthSpark program. Through these programs, we reached more than 100 million youth with opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship. And, for the first time ever, we are now hiring our DigiGirlz as full-time employees, from a talent pool we fostered years ago. This proves the lasting impact of these programs. The pipeline we invested in years ago is now coming back to us - a result every company strives for. It is a slow process, but we are seeing momentum from our efforts.

This is just the beginning of the conversation. In the coming weeks, we will share more information about both new and ongoing strategic investments and partnerships to advance diversity and inclusion at Microsoft and in the tech industry. We will also detail new core priorities for leaders and people managers at Microsoft to make our company the absolute best place to work.

Lisa

This story originally appeared as "Microsoft: 29 percent of our global workforce is now women" on ZDNet.

Mary Jo Foley Mary Jo Foley has been a tech journalist for almost 30 years. She is editor of ZDNet's "All About Microsoft" blog. She authored "Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era" and co-hosts the "Windows Weekly" podcast on the TWiT Network. See full bio

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AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Newly unsealed legal file indicates Samsung paid Microsoft $1B in 2013 alone to license patents Android allegedly infringed.

An Android fan at Google I/O earlier this year. Microsoft apparently makes a nice chunk of change from Samsung on royalty payments involving patents Android allegedly violated. Stephen Lam/Getty Images

So we knew Microsoft's Android-patent-licensing business was big. But it's even bigger than many had estimated.

Thanks to a filing unsealed on October 3 in the Microsoft v. Samsung U.S. District Court patent-royalty case filed in early August 2014, we now know that Samsung paid Microsoft $1 billion in 2013 for a single year's worth of patent-licensing royalties.

Samsung agreed in 2011 to pay Microsoft a then-undisclosed amount for licensing patents upon which Android allegedly infringed. That agreement was structured as a cross-licensing and business-collaboration agreement.

According to the unsealed filing, Microsoft is contending that "under the License Agreement, Samsung agreed to make patent royalty payment to Microsoft for a period of seven fiscal years, in exchange for the right to use patented Microsoft technology in Samsung smartphones and tablets that use the Android operating system."

The filing says Samsung failed to make its year-two royalty payment on time and to pay interest for not doing so. Samsung, for its part, claimed it shouldn't have to make good on the contract because Microsoft bought Nokia's devices and services business.

Microsoft said Samsung owed interest in excess of $6.9 million for its late Android-patent fee, which it still hadn't paid as of the date of the filing. That amount is calculated on the $1 billion Samsung owed Microsoft in Android patent-licensing royalties as of August 29, 2013, according to the unsealed documents.

On September 3, 2013, Microsoft publicly announced its plans to acquire Nokia's devices and services business. A Microsoft spokesperson said Samsung is claiming the Nokia acquisition would breach the business collaboration part of the patent license agreement. But according to the unsealed court documents, Samsung did pay Microsoft its agreed-on $1 billion second-year patent royalty amount on November 29, 2013, but still hasn't paid the third-year amount that was invoiced in June 2014 but still isn't yet due.

Samsung is claiming it shouldn't have to pay Microsoft the agreed-on patent-licensing fees for anything beyond the post-Nokia acquisition period -- even though it did pay the second-year amount late. Samsung claims the deal it signed with Microsoft should be redone so the amount it owes is reduced or eliminated because the patents covered were granted almost entirely by countries other than Korea and used in products sold to consumers in countries other than Korea.

Microsoft's contention: "Samsung is attempting to convert a commercial contract dispute governed by US law into a Korean regulatory issue."

(It's probably worth noting that Samsung and Nokia in November 2013 agreed to extend their own patent-licensing deal through 2018, with Samsung paying Nokia undisclosed royalties. That extension was forged after Microsoft announced intentions to buy Nokia's handset business, and a few months before Microsoft officially took possession of that part of Nokia.)

Stay tuned for the next chapter in this saga. And remember: Samsung is just one of nearly two dozen companies that are paying Microsoft Android and Chrome OS patent licensing fees.

This story originally appeared as "Samsung paid Microsoft $1 billion in Android patent-licensing royalties in 2013" on ZDNet.

Mary Jo Foley Mary Jo Foley has been a tech journalist for almost 30 years. She is editor of ZDNet's "All About Microsoft" blog. She authored "Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era" and co-hosts the "Windows Weekly" podcast on the TWiT Network. See full bio

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AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Designed for small and midsize businesses, the three new subscription plans offer more features and flexibility than their predecessors, says the company.

Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Microsoft has launched new plans for subscription-based service Office 365 that the company says are designed to better meet the needs of business users.

Available as of Thursday, the three new plans are called Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business and Office 365 Business Premium. As described in a Microsoft blog post, the new plans are geared toward businesses with anywhere from one to more than 250 employees and replace the previous Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans with more options.

The goal was to simplify and beef up the plans available by cutting prices on one of the plans and increasing the number of users allowed on two of the plans. Microsoft also tried to incorporate more options for social networking, mobile devices and cloud-based services. Since unveiling Office 365 in 2011, the software giant has been trying to push more users, especially business users, to adopt the service as an alternative to the traditional desktop Office suite.

"We made these changes to the existing Office 365 plans in response to feedback from our customers, and as part of our longstanding commitment to bring the benefits of cloud-based productivity to every SMB" (small and midsize business), Microsoft said in its blog.

Office 365 Business Essentials offers Office Online, OneDrive for business with 1 terabyte of online storage, Exchange-based email with contacts and shared calendars, online meetings via Web conferencing and instant messaging, Sharepoint-based team collaboration and Internet portals, and a private social network via Yammer. The version costs $5 per user per month on an annual basis and $6 per user per month on a monthly basis. It replaces Office 365 Small Business, which also cost $5 per user per month.

The next level, Office 365 Business, includes the full Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher), OneDrive for Business, and Office Online. Users can also access and share documents across a variety of platforms, including Windows on PCs and tablets, Windows Phone, Mac OS X, and the iPad. Priced at $8.25 per user per month on a yearly basis and $10 per user per month on a monthly basis, the version replaces Office 365 Small Business Premium, which cost $12.50 per user per month.

The third level, Office 365 Business Premium, combines the other two plans, so you get access to everything included in Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business. This one will cost you $12.50 per user per month annually and $15 per user per month each month and replaces Office 365 Midsize Business, which cost $15 per user per month.

Those who opt for the new Business Essentials and Business plans will also see the maximum number of users they can add raised to 300 from 25. The Business Premium plan already carries over the 300-user maximum from the Midsize Business plan. Microsoft is also promising greater flexibility if your business grows. As you add more employees, you can easily switch to a different business plan, opt for an Enterprise plan, or add specific applications such as Microsoft Project or Microsoft Visio.

In a previous blog, Microsoft also explained the options for switching to the new plans. Existing Office 365 business customers can stick with their existing plans if desired and need to do nothing until their first renewal after October 1, 2015. Following that date, you'll need to select one of the three new plans when your next renewal kicks in.

Lance Whitney Journalist, software trainer, and Web developer Lance Whitney writes columns and reviews for CNET, Computer Shopper, Microsoft TechNet, and other technology sites. His first book, "Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time," was published by Wiley & Sons in November 2012. See full bio

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