Licensing 6.0: Going, Going, Gone

Sources close to Microsoft said the software giant has formed a licensing rationalization committee to explore future changes, and some sources also reported that Microsoft's own salespeople were cutting deals past the July 31 deadline. But most said they viewed that date as a hard stop.

Licensing experts said they saw a major increase in business during the dog days of summer.

"In fact, Software Spectrum and Corporate Software are each having a record July," said Lorraine Castorina, senior vice president of North American sales at Software Spectrum. "Typically, this would be a slower time of year for us, but we are approaching business levels that are similar to end-of-the-year sales numbers. We can attribute this upsurge to the Microsoft licensing deadline."

Ingram Micro last week met Wall Street expectations, in part because of the licensing deadline, company executives said.

"We're Microsoft's largest distributor, so [the Licensing 6.0 arrangement has significant impact on us," said Mike Grainger, president and COO of Ingram Micro, on the company's earnings call last week.

Software licensing services provider ASAP Software said more customers were purchasing Upgrade Advantage, which secures the customer's right to take advantage of Upgrade Advantage discount rates and qualify for Licensing 6.0 in the future.

"We're seeing big numbers like we'd see in a quarter-end period, not in an off-month like July," said Harry Zoberman, senior vice president of marketing and operations at ASAP.

License Online, a subsidiary of Synnex in Bellevue, Wash., was swamped. "There are many last-minute orders, even into the six figures, for Microsoft licenses. We're going to break records for orders closed this month," said Sharon Erdman, director of marketing at License Online.