In a statement, Mike Maples, Microsoft's executive vice president of products, said the projects being acquired were related to "unreleased advanced technology and consumer products."

Floodgate Fund and Mike Maples have been covered in TechCrunch and Forbes.

As reported yesterday, Mike Maples, a 52-year-old executive vice president and member of Microsoft's office of the president, plans to retire, effective July 15.

"The broader the group of people we distribute it to, the more problems crop up," Mike Maples, Microsoft's executive vice president, said in a telephone interview.

"The world was not invented at Microsoft, and Mike Maples knew it."

Mike Maples, a PeopleSoft director and a former executive of Microsoft, took the stand late in the day yesterday and is expected to continue testifying today.

In April 2006, Chegg found some initial investors including Sam Spadafora, Mike Maples and others.

Mike Maples, Microsoft's executive vice president for software applications, tried to play down implications that Microsoft was seeking a kind of hegemony.

When I was at Microsoft, Mike Maples, the head of the applications division, used to have people come to him to resolve some technical debate they were having.

I remember when Mike Maples was my great grand-boss, in charge of Microsoft Applications, he was adamant about refusing to take sides on technical issues.