Be advised that this company has A shares and B shares, and the B shares have a super-vote. Luxoft is classified as a “controlled company” under the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listed companies. Luxoft’s principal shareholder is IBS Group Holding Ltd., a software development and IT services provider in Eastern Europe founded in 1992. The company did warn in the prospectus that IBS Group’s dominance will limit the ability of any shareholders to influence corporate matters. Luxoft is Swiss-based but organized under the laws of the British Virgin Islands.

Here is the company’s description: “We are a leading provider of software development services and innovative IT solutions to a global client base consisting primarily of large multinational corporations. Our services consist of core and mission critical software development and support, product engineering and testing, and technology consulting. Our solutions are based on our proprietary products and platforms that directly impact our clients’ business outcomes and efficiently deliver continuous innovation.”

Fortune Global 500 companies as clients include Deutsche Bank, UBS, Boeing, Harman, Avaya and AMD. Over the last year some 45.6% of sales came from clients located in Europe, 42.0% in North America, and 12.4% in other geographies. The company claims to have added 52 new clients in the last fiscal year.

As of March 31, 2013, Luxoft had 5,846 employees, and 4,927 of them were IT professionals. Approximately 80% of its IT professionals hold Master’s degrees (or equivalents) or higher. The company sales were $198.4 million in the year March-2011 and this rose to $314.6 million in the year ended March 31, 2013; net income grew over the same period from $25.9 million to $37.5 million.

FULL SEC F-1 FILING

New features include a voice control guide, enabling Skype video calls while watching television, snap mode to move in between multiple programs at once with Explorer running side by side. This will allow you to switch to games and music instantly, or to movies.

As far as how the video game functionality is changing, that comes with a new video game hand controller that was said to be designed by gamers for gamers and a new Kinect feature with advanced camera and reading functions. The company’s SmartGlass aims to tie in other hardware devices, enabling your tablet to be a remote control.

What is obvious is that this new Xbox One from Microsoft is aimed at being the first true convergence device from the company at the launch. The Xbox 360 was added to and grown on multiple times. Even if that ends up being the case here for Xbox One, this at least looks like Microsoft’s convergence device has arrived.

More details will be available after the 11:00 AM Pacific Time.

Lead underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

The company yesterday boosted the number of shares on offer by 1.15 million, including the underwriters’ overallotment of 150,000 shares. The original filing called for the sale of 7.2 million shares, not including the underwriters’ option on an additional 1.08 million shares. The expected price range had been $28 to $30 a share, but strong demand led to the larger volume and higher price.

Tableau offers a cloud-based data analytics product that allows users to display and query large data sets using a visual query language and a graphical interface. “Big data,” as it is called, has become a very hot corner of the tech sector, and Tableau’s IPO could not have been timed better. The company lists among its customers Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD), the Federal Aviation Administration and Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD).

The company’s revenues have grown from $34.2 million in 2010 to $127.7 million last year. In the first three months of 2013, Tableau posted revenues of $40 million.

If Yahoo! Finance and The Wall Street Journal are to be believed, Tableau’s shares opened at $44 this morning and have risen to nearly $50 in the first hour of trading. Can the underwriters have left this much money on the table?

As Google released the new product, management noted:

What if we told you that during your lifetime, Google could create millions of custom maps … each one just for you?

In the past, such a notion would have been unbelievable: a map was just a map, and you got the same one for New York City, whether you were searching for the Empire State Building or the coffee shop down the street. What if, instead, you had a map that’s unique to you, always adapting to the task you want to perform right this minute?

This is what you will have with the introduction of the new Google Maps — a mapping experience that helps you find places you never would have thought to search for.

In a world in which the paper map has been banished and GPS devices work on consumer electronics products as small as smartphones, the presence of well-developed online location and map services is nearly ubiquitous. Among the most powerful competition to Google’s product are Mapquest from AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) free maps product. Although Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) first run at online maps failed, the product will get an upgrade and probably will be launched ahead of the new iPhone and iPad. This Apple product certainly will be loaded on these, providing distribution in the tens of millions within months.

Without question, the new Google Maps product is extraordinary. The product can be personalized to allow people to have individual maps to the locations they visit most often, the locations of retailers and settings for “Home” and “Work” activity. However, there is no e-commerce or ad system attached to these features.

Even the old version of Google Maps is impressive, as Apple found out when it released an inferior product. The Google product includes satellite views and the ability to get nearly instant road and traffic conditions. Maps is so powerful that, when loaded on a tablet or smartphone, it negates the need for a high-end GPS product altogether.

Among the theories about why Google has pressed so hard into the map business is that it will help drive the adoption of Android, the most widely used mobile operating system in the world. This may help Google’s access to the mobile world. However, Android is a free product as well. Google has to gamble that all these features will let it rule the mobile world, and that it can then can press its ad products onto mobile users as well. Maybe. However, that is a lot of steps, and a lot of R&D and engineering investment, to build a revenue bridge Google has not built, even a little, so far.

Windows 8 may not have hit its download target, but sales have moved above 100 million. By releasing updated versions of the software to address concerns, Ballmer has gotten in front of the problem, although it is one many people believe should never have existed.

Windows 8 was released into a world in which PC sales rates have gone into reverse. Critics argue that Windows could have pulled PC sales higher. On the other hand, consumer migration to tablets and smartphones almost certainly would have happened no matter what Microsoft did. The remaining criticism is that Microsoft has left the mobile OS business to Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS. However, Android does not make any money, so its value to Google cannot be assessed yet.

Ballmer has managed to effectively guard Microsoft’s two other long-term franchises. Each has a large number of competitors anxious to get a portion of markets that Microsoft has proved are highly profitable. In Microsoft’s fiscal third quarter:

The Microsoft Business Division posted $6.32 billion of revenue, an 8% increase from the prior year period. Adjusting for the net recognition of revenue related to the Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-Sales, Microsoft Business Division non-GAAP revenue increased 5%. During the quarter, we launched the new Office, enhancing productivity and the user experience through new mobility, social, and cloud features.

The Server & Tools business reported $5.04 billion of revenue, an 11% increase from the prior year period, driven by double-digit percentage revenue growth in SQL Server and System Center.

Ballmer has been blamed for keeping the company in the online portal and search businesses. But it cannot afford to hand this business to Google. Its venture with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a market share in the United States of more than 30%, a number many analysts believed was beyond its reach. Search remains strategically critical, if for nothing else as a tool to help online adoption of Windows mobile. This part of Microsoft did better than expected recently:

The Online Services Division reported revenue of $832 million, an 18% increase from the prior year period. Online advertising revenue grew 22% driven by an increase in revenue per search.

Many other companies are struggling with declines in online revenue.

The final defense of Ballmer’s recent tenure as CEO of Microsoft is the most compelling one. Its share price is up 35% over the past two years, while the Nasdaq is higher by 25%. And Microsoft shares have a 2.8% yield. That helps make the case for Ballmer stronger than the one against him.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the search for an alternative OS:

Some of the world’s biggest handset makers and telecom carriers are embracing alternative mobile operating systems this year in a quest to become credible challengers to smartphones run by Apple Inc.and Google Inc. These companies are hoping they can outgun attempts by Microsoft Corp.and Research In Motion Ltd. to emerge as a third alternative platform to the iPhone and Android devices, which have a virtual stranglehold on the market.

Manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies Co., LG Electronics Inc.and ZTE Corp.are building phones for Mozilla’s Firefox OS due out this year with the support of several major carriers.

Microsoft would have to take unprecedented actions to draw carriers to Windows and away from products such as Firefox. Most of the technology world has long believed that Microsoft’s major goal was to overwhelm markets with its tech prowess and marketing that relies on the large cash sum on its balance sheet. However, that cash position now is no better than those of Google or Apple. If anything, the antitrust designation has shifted to Google and Apple. Microsoft’s past monopoly advantages are all but gone. That, by itself, may make carriers more comfortable.

Along with the cash issue is another, which is that officials around the world have beaten down Microsoft’s past monopoly positions. It has been one of the most carefully watched targets of regulators, and that will not end at any time soon, even if Google and Apple are added to the list of those scrutinized by governments.

However, the forces that have put Microsoft at a disadvantage in many sectors compared to both Google and Apple are insufficient to convince carriers that it can be a good partner. Microsoft would have to share some of the benefits of Windows 8 with the telecom companies. This might be based on sharing the money made from the applications built for Windows mobile. The application stores of Google and Apple are so large that they have overwhelmed any effort of carriers to control them. If anything, Android and iOS apps tether consumers to Apple and Google, which kills any benefit customers might perceive in loyalty to the carriers or the software products the carriers promote.

The future of Windows could be based on one thing — its ability to sell carriers on the idea that it can be a partner and not another enemy like the Google and Apple have become.

On a GAAP basis, EPS for the third quarter totaled $0.72, which includes a charge of $0.16 per share related to net revenue recognition for certain products. The charges are partially offset by a $0.09 per share benefit related to a fine the company paid in Europe.

For the full year, Microsoft expects operating expenses to fall to a range of $30.2 to $30.5 billion as a result of the European fine. The company also said its preliminary estimate of operating expenses for fiscal year 2014 is $31.6 to $32.2 billion. The consensus estimate for fourth fiscal quarter EPS is $0.78 on revenues of $21.19 billion. For the fiscal year 2013 EPS is forecast at $2.74 on revenues of $79.28 billion.

The company’s CEO said:

The bold bets we made on cloud services are paying off as people increasingly choose Microsoft services including Office 365, Windows Azure, Xbox LIVE, and Skype. While there is still work to do, we are optimistic that the bets we’ve made on Windows devices position us well for the long-term.

Of Microsoft’s $20.49 billion in revenues, $5.7 comes from its Windows operating systems group, a year-over-year boost of 23% for the quarter. The business division’s revenue increased 8% to to $6.32 billion. Adjusting for revenue recognition differences, though, the Windows group posted flat revenues and the business division posted a 5% gain.

The company’s online services revenues grew 18%, and advertising sales grew 22%, driven by an increase in revenue per search. The entertainment and devices division posted revenue of $2.53 billion, up 56% over the same period a year ago. Adjusted for revenue recognition differences, the Xbox division’s revenues rose 33% and the company’s Xbox Live product now claims 46 million members, up 18% over the same period a year ago.

The company also announced that its CFO is leaving at the end of the 2013 fiscal year in June. The new CFO will be named from among Microsoft’s “finance leadership team,” according to the press release.

Nothing about Microsoft’s results is likely to move it’s stock out of the narrow trading range it’s been stuck in for about three years now. The dividend yield of 3.2% is what keeps investors tuned in.

Shares are up 1.6% at $29.24 in after-hours trading today. The 52-week range is $26.26 to $32.89. Prior to today’s release Thomson/Reuters had a consensus price target of around $32.70 on the company’s shares.

In Amazon’s race to dominate, or at least have a prime position, in the mobile app development business, it finds itself behind Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Apple’s massive distribution channel through its iPad and iPhone products, and the many years it has had its own store, give it a built-in advantage. Google has leverage of its own because of the nearly universal adoption of it Android mobile operating system. Its large share of the mobile OS industry cannot be underestimated as an app distribution network, via Google’s own store. Developers with direct relationship with Google can create products for both Amazon’s Kindle and all other Android products

Amazon Appstore for Android was created to help Amazon steal some of Google’s native app developer network. Why developers would not favor Google’s own developer system and store is a mystery. That means most of Amazon’s success with app distribution will be based on its own Kindle Fire tablet, to a substantial extent:

Developers throughout the world are experiencing strong monetization and user engagement through Kindle Fire and the Amazon Appstore.

As far as anyone can tell, the Amazon Appstore is the e-commerce company’s attempt to help sales of its Kindle products, and nothing more. The risk in that is that the Kindle may be overwhelmed by all the other Android-based tablets that have flooded the market. But in the hope of bolstering its position, the company said:

Amazon.com, Inc. continued the global expansion of its Appstore today by announcing that developers can now submit their apps for distribution in nearly 200 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, India, South Africa, South Korea, and even Papua New Guinea and Vatican City.

Vatican City may not be a big enough market to help Amazon reach its Appstore goals.

Microsoft got a big win in this ongoing effort, cutting a deal with the owner of Foxconn, one of the primary manufacturers for several smartphone firms, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Microsoft said of the patent deal:

Microsoft Corp. and Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn, signed a worldwide patent licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for devices running the Android and Chrome OS, including smartphones, tablets and televisions. While the contents of the agreement are confidential, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from Hon Hai under the agreement. Hon Hai joins a growing list of contract manufacturing and original design manufacturing companies with Android and Chrome patent licenses.

Evertec priced its IPO at $20, the high end of its proposed range of $18 to $20. The company issued more than 25 million shares, of which 10.2 million shares are being sold by Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO) and 8.8 million shares are being sold by Popular Inc. The company is selling 6.25 million shares and the underwriters have a 30-day option on an additional 3.8 million shares from Apollo.

The company expects to receive net proceeds from the IPO of about $117 million. Apollo will own 28.8% of Evertec shares and Popular will own 33.5% after the IPO, if the overallotment is exercised. Evertec plans to use the proceeds to pay down existing debt. The company is based in Puerto Rico and operates throughout Latin America in the payment transaction processing business.

Rally Software raised both the number of shares in and the share price of its IPO. The company boosted its offering from 5.75 million to 6.0 million shares and priced the IPO at $14 a share, above the expected range of $11 to $13. The company expects to receive net proceeds of $70 million from the IPO, which it plans to use for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

The company offers a cloud-based system to manage projects for the Agile software development system. The company is based in Boulder, Colo., and claimed about 169,000 paid seats in use in its S-1 filing.

Shares of Evertec are up about 7% at $21.41, and shares of Rally are up nearly 28%, at $17.89.