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Microsoft: Will They Ever Stop?
By Gary Thomas | January 9, 2008
Microsoft is once again trying to buy up some of the Search Marketing Real Estate. According to an Article by Steve Lohr in the New York Times, Microsoft is bidding $1.2 billion to buy a Norwegian Search Engine Firm, Fast Search and Transfer.
Here is a little back ground on FAST. Fast is an Enterprise Search Function that started up in Norway back in 1997, they have grown globally with offices across six continents.
Its software helps teams of workers quickly search the corporate storehouse of information for answers about procurement, marketing, manufacturing and product design,” the NYTimes.com reported.
This battle is more about a counter strike against the Search engine Giant, Google, rolling out corporate application as an alternative to Microsoft Office. By buying this firm, they will be able to add new feature to their current application appealing to their target market – corporate workers.
Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s business division, which includes Office, pointed to advantage of having “a single vendor with solutions that span the full range of customer needs,” Lohr wrote.
This move has no immediate impact on its web search but down the road can have an influence on its business search. However they do not know to what extent.
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January 9th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Well Gary MSN seems to be just getting started. I like the the title “will they ever stop”, will Google?
January 10th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
They won’t - too much pressure to make profit somewhere or gain a foothold where others don’t.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:44 am
IMO, I think they won’t… It’s a competition. They can grow, and they can be on top. So I think they won’t just get away with it.