Looking to kick-start its security software business, Microsoft will offer resellers a 20 percent cut of its license sales in addition to the usual reseller margin. The incentive is part of a new "Microsoft Security Software Advisor Program" that the software giant plans to announce Wednesday at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston. Microsoft has a similar program for resellers of its software for customer relationship management, Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Adobe Systems joined Microsoft on "Patch Tuesday" and delivered fixes for two security flaws in the ubiquitous Adobe PDF reader software. The vulnerabilities affect Adobe’s Acrobat and Reader software for both the Windows operating system and Apple Computer’s Mac OS, Adobe said in two separate security advisories. If left unpatched, the flaws could put Windows and Mac users at risk of a cyberattack.

Microsoft plans to increasingly offer financing to its commercial customers, a company official said, as the software maker looks to boost slowing revenue growth. As part of that effort, Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is entering a five-year partnership with CIT Group, under which the software company will essentially outsource its vendor financing to CIT for sales in France in Switzerland, and eventually in other markets.

Security researchers have a brand-new tool to use to go digging for malicious executables on the Web: The Google SOAP Search API. Malware hunters at Websense’s Security Labs have figured out a way to use the freely available Google API to find dangerous .exe files sitting on thousands of Web servers around the world.

Time Warner said it would soon disclose its business strategy for Internet unit AOL, dismissing a Wall Street Journal report that it will lose up to $1 billion through 2009 as it offers more free services.

European regulators hit Microsoft with a $357.3 million fine Wednesday, citing the software giant’s continued noncompliance with its landmark 2004 antitrust ruling. The European Commission issued the 280.5 million euro fine for the period between Dec. 16 and June 20. That figure amounts to a daily fine of 1.5 million euros, which the Commission is prepared to increase to up to 3 million euros per day if the software giant does not come into full compliance beginning July 31.

Microsoft plans to launch a new hosted CRM service next year under its expanding Live brand. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, an on-demand alternative to its on-premise customer relationship management software, is set to debut by mid-2007 as part of a revamped product code-named Titan.

Microsoft has introduced per-user prices for its enterprise resource planning applications, in a move that reflects a growing desire to move away from highly complex pricing strategies for corporate software. The Business Ready Licensing model and the Business Ready Enhancement Plan introduced Monday for the Microsoft Dynamics financial applications portfolio are intended to improve the "value of the licensing and maintenance programs," the company said.

Microsoft on Tuesday made available fixes for 18 security vulnerabilities in Windows and Office software. The patches were delivered in seven security bulletins, five of which Microsoft deems "critical," its most serious rating. One of the urgent fixes addresses a flaw in a Windows component that could be used to spread a worm. Other updates deal with Office flaws that have already been used in targeted attacks.

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston July 11-13, the company again is hoping to go vertical via its massive Microsoft Business Solutions partner channel to become a bigger enterprise resource planning player. At the Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis last year, the push from on high was to create a sea change within the MBS partner channel, prodding partners through new programs such as IBI, or the Industry Builder initiative, to develop more vertically oriented applications and align sales around "classic" Microsoft technologies from .Net to Visual Studio.