Microsoft bids $1.2 billion for Norway's Fast
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Microsoft Corp  has offered to buy Norwegian Internet-search software firm Fast Search & Transfer  for 19 crowns per share, valuing it at about $1.2 billion, the companies said on Tuesday.
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Microsoft will offer up to $600 per server (up to a maximum of $15,000) to companies who agree to switch from Novell to Windows servers, it has been revealed.
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Microsoft Corp  has bid 19 crowns  per share for Norwegian Internet search software firm Fast  Search & Transfer , valuing the company at about $1.2  billion, the companies said on Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - A venture capital firm has given a $10 million boost to a Swedish company that could soon be in the competitive crosshairs of Google and Microsoft. Swedish venture company Northzone Ventures will help Xcerion AB emerge from stealth mode to launch its Web-based OS and related marketplace for hosted software later this year, said Xcerion CEO Daniel Arthursson, in an interview with the IDG News Service Monday. The company already has some big-name investors backing it, including one of the original architects of Windows NT and a former Microsoft general manager, Lou Perazzoli, and former Microsoft CFO John Connors. Arthursson said Xcerion, which was formed in 2001, set up an office in Seattle two years ago, and company founders began networking in the area to gain the support of the former Microsoft executives. Xcerion has developed an OS that works from within a browser, which developers can use to build Web-based versions of existing software or new applications quickly and without having to build separate versions for different computer OSes, he said. The company also will host the applications and make them available in an online marketplace. Users can choose to either run ad-supported versions of the applications for free, or pay a small yearly fee -- about $5 or $10 per year -- to run them is ad-free, Arthursson said. The company will manage subscriptions for third-party vendors and give them about 80 percent or 90 percent of the subscription revenue, while keeping a small percentage for its hosting and management services, he said. "If you [look at] the current marketplace, there are probably only about 50 to 300 applications that are the main ones people use today on their desktop computers," he said. "If you can recreate these and use it within our own OS, people won't have to use those applications on the desktop and can stop buying licensed software." Users also can run applications built on Xcerion's XML Internet OS when they are offline, Arthursson said. Any information saved when they are running the application offline will be immediately updated to the online version when they reconnect to the Internet. Xcerion is hoping to do for Web-based business application development what Microsoft did for applications development on the desktop, Arthursson said. "In some sense, we're working in the same direction [as Microsoft]," he said. Google also has promoted itself as a platform on which developers can build Web applications, but so far the company's services have not really caught on with consumers, not business customers. Arthursson said he hopes Xcerion will partner with many of Microsoft's ISV partners so they can offer versions of their software online. He said he expects ads sold for applications offered through Xcerion's marketplace will likely be the No. 1 source of revenue for the company, while subscription services managed for third-party applications will be its second biggest revenue stream. Microsoft, too, has been ramping up its strategy to offer Web-based applications. When Xcerion launches its Internet OS -- which is expected by the end of the third calendar quarter -- it also will launch its own Web-based office productivity suite that will run on the OS. The suite will include a word-processing application, a spreadsheet-application, a presentation application similar to Microsoft PowerPoint and an e-mail and calendar application, Arthursson said. The differentiator between Xcerion's productivity application and Google Apps from the search vendor is the ability for it to run when a user is offline, he said. Microsoft, too, is said to be developing a Web-based version of its Office suite, but has not officially made an announcement about the product.
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Wants to mine web with Fast buy Microsoft is to acquire Norwegian business search engine company Fast Search and Transfer for 6.6bn kroner ($1.23bn).â¦
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InfoWorld - Microsoft has offered to buy enterprise search software company Fast Search And Transfer for 6.6 billion Norwegian kroner ($1.2 billion), it said Tuesday.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc.
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NEW YORK: SBC Communications, the No. 2 US telecoms company, has agreed to pay US$400mil to Microsoft Corp for software that can deliver television via high-speed data lines, the New York Times reported yesterday.
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U.S. software giant Microsoft  said on Tuesday it would bid 19 crowns per share for Norwegian Internet search software firm Fast Search & Transfer , valuing the company at about $1.2 billion.
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SBC Communications, the No. 2 U.S.  telecommunications company, has agreed to pay $400 million to  Microsoft Corp. for software that can deliver television via  high-speed data lines, The New York Times reported on  Wednesday.
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Microsoft Corp.'s proposed $42 billion purchase of Yahoo Inc. would establish the world's largest software maker as a "strong No. 2 competitor" against online search leader Google Inc., Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday.
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Microsoft Corp has offered to buy Norwegian Internet-search software firm Fast Search & Transfer for 19 crowns per share, valuing the company at about $1.2 billion, the companies said on Tuesday.
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In November, Microsoft representatives began to comment that the enterprise search market had reached &quot;a tipping point&quot;; on Tuesday, the company backed up that claim with a bundle of cash,&#160;offering to buy enterprise search software company Fast Search And Transfer (FAST)&#160;for 6.6 billion Norwegian kroner ($1.2 billion).Analysts and other search firms said Tuesday the move means that enterprise search has truly arrived as a software category, and also that further consolidation will likely occur in the space, creating opportunities for niche players.No immediate stumbling blocks appear to be in the way of Microsoft buying FAST, which is based in Oslo. The company&#39;s board has recommended that shareholders accept the offer, which represents a premium of 42 percent over FAST&#39;s share price at close of business on Friday. The companies expect the deal to close in the second quarter.&quot;It&#39;s a great bit of technology acquisition for Microsoft,&quot; said Mike Davis, senior analyst with Ovum Group.Microsoft is buying FAST as a way to break into the high-end enterprise search market and also offer customers a full range of search products. In November, it&#160;introduced Search Server 2008 and Search Server Express 2008. Microsoft is pitching Search Server 2008 as a cheap entry into enterprise search, while the Express version is free for single installations.FAST&#39;s rivals include Autonomy -- which recently acquired Meridio and Zantaz -- and Endeca.Davis said it would not surprise him if a rival vendor, such as Oracle, follows up Microsoft&#39;s move with a high-end search acquisition of its own.He and another analyst suggested Tuesday that Microsoft has not only scooped up a solid company but got a bargain in the process.Guy Creese, an analyst with Burton Group, argued on his blog that FAST&#39;s recent financial troubles, which led to layoffs last year, probably helped drive down its price tag.&quot;While the operational wheels fell off, the FAST technology is strong at its core,&quot; added Creese, who called the pending deal &quot;a huge coup&quot; for Microsoft.But cost was not the driving factor in Microsoft&#39;s choice of FAST over other high-end search vendors in the space, according to Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft&#39;s business division.Raikes insisted during a conference call Tuesday afternoon that FAST simply had the best people and technology.The executive didn&#39;t shed much light on the negotiation process that led up to Tuesday&#39;s announcement, but did indicate one aspect of Redmond&#39;s immediate plans, assuming the deal closes as expected.&quot;I can simply say that part of what we will look at ... will be to marry the strengths we have with our software-plus-services model with what FAST is doing.&quot;Raikes said FAST&#39;s technological strengths, such as its scalability and domain-specific searching capabilities, proved attractive to Microsoft.He declined to say whether the FAST acquisition will have any impact on Microsoft&#39;s Internet search products, but did not rule out the possibility.Raikes asserted that Microsoft will emerge as the go-to vendor for enterprise search customers once the deal is finalized.&quot;We think most customers are recognizing that they don&#39;t want their enterprise search to be fragmented across the organization,&quot; he said. &quot;Customers are going to want to choose a search strategy and the offerings from one vendor.&quot;Despite that view, Tuesday&#39;s news had smaller, specialized enterprise search vendors, such as Brainware, brimming with confidence, at least publicly.&quot;We&#39;re excited because it really heightens the importance of enterprise search applications,&quot; said Brainware&#39;s CFO and general counsel, James Zubok. &quot;But the biggest reason we&#39;re excited is that technology like ours is highly complementary [to broader offerings],&quot; he said.Brainware claims its search software can return useful results even when search terms are misspelled, or from illegible documents.Robert Tennant, CEO of Recommind, a search company that focuses on e-discovery, said Microsoft&#39;s move foretells a changing role for search. &quot;We believe that search is really important to the next generation of all software,&quot; he said. &quot;It provides information access with context. We believe that you&#39;ll see search ... woven within the fabric of other applications.&quot;Tennant also predicted it will be &quot;many years&quot; before Microsoft will produce specialized, vertical search products like those offered by Recommind.Raul Valdes-Perez, CEO of Vivisimo, which makes the Velocity Search Platform for enterprises, echoed the notion that Microsoft&#39;s investment is good for the market overall. &quot;I think we will have, eventually, one less competitor and many more partners,&quot; he said.But he also argued that the real beneficiaries of such consolidation could be companies like his own. &quot;I think there&#39;s a lot of uncertainty, and in this environment enterprise customers are going to look for predictability.&quot;Microsoft&#39;s stock was down $1.14 in late trading Tuesday to $33.47, on a bad day overall for the market.IDG News Service&#39;s Peter Sayer contributed to this report.
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Microsoft Corp beat out Google Inc on Wednesday in a battle to invest in socializing Web site Facebook, agreeing to pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the Web phenomenon.
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Telecommunications equipment  maker Ericsson AB (ERICb.ST) will buy data networking  equipment vendor Redback Networks Inc.  for $2.1  billion in cash, the companies said on Tuesday.
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In the midst of the world's CES frenzy, Microsoft today announced plans to acquire Fast Search & Transfer, a financially and legally troubled Norwegian-based software firm offering highly regarded search software for online ad serving.
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A campaign to get life-saving vaccines  to millions of children in poor countries received a $1 billion  cash boost from Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and the  government of Norway on Tuesday.