[ Update: April 7, 2010: Yes, this was an April Fools' Day Posting! ]

REDMOND, Wash., April 1 /PRNewzwire/ -- In a move that may surprise some industry onlookers, but that is being described by a company spokesman as "making incredible sense at the bottom line," Microsoft Corporation announced today that it will begin migrating its corporate information technology operations to archrival Google's "Google Apps" Internet "cloud"-based services environment by the start of the third quarter this year.

"We've gone over the numbers more ways than you can crash Vista, said Herman Morander of the newly formed "Microogly" working group at the software giant's Washington State headquarters. "We're going to save millions -- maybe billions! -- by moving most of our employees over to free Google Apps services like Gmail. Plus we'll be freeing up resources here to concentrate on our core competencies like Flight Simulator and stylus-based mobile phone operating systems."

Asked if the $50/user/year "Google Apps for Business" services tier might be more appropriate for Microsoft's use, Morander noted that, "Some of our top executives' needs will likely justify that level of expenditure, but most of us will be able to do just fine with the very generous allotments in the free versions of Google Apps. Seven gigs of storage is more than enough to hold all of my Microsoft internal correspondence, plus most of my uuencoded porn collection! Every Microsoft employee will be assigned a nondescript alias for Gmail use to avoid attracting Google's attention -- for instance, I'm bangloryman@gmail.com."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer emphasized that Microsoft's move to Google Apps only involved Microsoft's internal global corporate operations, and would not in any way impact customer-facing services such as Microsoft's popular "Bing" decision engine.

"Given Microsoft's intense desire to enthusiastically embrace the diverse and expansive censorship requirements of our partners in the Chinese government, and Google's apparent reluctance to meet those same requirements, we'll definitely be keeping our Bing and other related public-use servers running on their current CP/M Windows 98 secure clusters into the foreseeable future," Ballmer promised.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

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--Lauren--