Productivity software is... hot?!

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg]( [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]([Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]]( Hi, this is [Dina](mailto:dbass2@bloomberg.net?cmpid=BBD031517_TECH)in Seattle. I've covered Microsoft for a looong time (let's just say I pre-date the Xbox) so you won't be surprised to hear that I've seen several cycles of productivity programs come and go. The latest iteration from Redmond, [called Teams](, was just released with a key competitor squarely within its sights: Slack. There's been a new flurry of productivity software debuting recently, from notetaking and chats, to slideshows and teleconferencing. Once a sleepy market, an enterprise's biggest decision might have been whether that five-year-old version of Office 97 still had any life left in it. But over the past few years, everyone from VCs to big companies have put a lot of money into new apps for work as the market moves to the cloud and users handle more tasks on their smartphones. As a result, the productivity software market is starting to look like a giant version of (the board game) Risk. Each company has staked out its home country and is gathering allies to mount attacks. And if they roll the dice right they can conquer adjacent lands. For example: - Last week, Google reinvigorated its fight with Microsoft Office by announcing it had [nabbed a massive customer](, Verizon - File-sharing company Dropbox is aiming to edge out Microsoft's SharePoint; COO Dennis Woodside [is betting]( that it can replace email and corporate chat—at least some of the time - Slack is now looking to get its chat and collaboration platform [into big enterprises]( - Dropbox rival Box has set its sights on SharePoint, but also on stodgy programs that manage content like Documentum, which has changed hands from EMC to Canada's OpenText - Atlassian, which competes with Microsoft and Slack, [just bought Trello]( - Salesforce [bought Quip]( in August, partly to get into office software (and maybe to annoy Microsoft) - The Information reports Amazon maybe [eyeing a foray]( into Office’s territory with its own word processing, spreadsheet and other programs. Confused yet? And that's before we even consider all the smaller startups and apps. In 2015, Microsoft bought popular task-list app Wunderlist. But not to worry, dozens of others have sprung up in its place, including Orderly, WeDo, Todoist and Streaks. Given how much people seem to hate PowerPoint, it's sort of surprising that there are dozens of companies seeking to offer replacements for lengthy corporate presentations. When you think about it, the dominance of Microsoft's Office is unusual, both in terms of longetivity and comprehensiveness. It seems clear that with the advent of cloud and mobile many customers will use a collection of smaller programs rather than anointing a new king of everything. But we’re still heading into a period of further consolidation, and what’s hot today may fizzle. Is anyone still using Evernote? But not to worry, [there's always Bear](. And here's what you need to know in global technology news Bill Maris is back. Again. The former chief of Google Ventures is raising a $100 million fund, based in San Diego, where he lives, according to people familiar with the plans. He'll be the sole investor and keep the same focus on biotech and health-care startups. [The fund is called Section 32](, a nod to Star Trek’s Section 31 security forces. Reid Hoffman is heading north. LinkedIn's co-founder [will join Microsoft's board](, taking it to 12 directors. The software maker bought the professional social-networking company for $26.2 billion last year in its biggest-ever acquisition. Attention Yahoo: The indictments are coming. The Department of Justice is planning to [issue indictments](related to the hacking attacks against Yahoo, according to a person briefed on the matter. Four people are being accused of participating in massive online security breaches that compromised hundreds of millions of user accounts. The hacks came to light last year and threatened to derail the sale of Yahoo's web operations to Verizon Communications. Toshiba's neverending troubles may now lead to a sale of its Westinghouse Electric nuclear unit. The Japanese company [missed a second deadline to report earnings]( and said it may sell a majority stake in the subsidiary, which is facing a writedown of more than $6 billion and causing its parent to sell off control of its prized memory chip operations. Falling behind is expensive. Intel shelled out one of the highest takeover premiums this century to make sure it [doesn't get left behind]( in the market for self-driving car tech. .. and speaking of being left behind, perennial holder of strategic and operational reviews Citrix Systems, hired Goldman Sachs for a potential sale. So far, [interest has been limited](. Amazon is embracing the Chinese online shopper—from Japan. The web retailer's Japan website will [start accepting UnionPay]( cards, stepping up efforts to sell more merchandise to Chinese consumers across Asia. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022