http://blogs.business2.com/sloan/2007/05/why_microsofts_.html
Paul Sloan doesn't blog too often so when I see his blog update, it's worth mentioning. Paul adds additional color to the 6Billion purchase of Aquantive.
Quote: "the point of this deal (and the point of Google buying DoubleClick, for that matter) is that it's no longer about search vs. display. The lines are blurring, ... Aquantive knows, for instance, that certain banner ads make people more likely to search using certain keywords... Microsoft, for example, should be able to tell a car advertiser running a display ad for a sports car exactly what keywords it should buy for its paid search campaign -- maybe "red cars" or "fast cars," and so on."
Hmmm .. still sounds like 'not a lot of fireworks' for 6 billion.
Ouch!
Overpaying for a company because someone else (Google) beat you out in overpaying for some other company is an unwise move.
With their resources, MS could have reverse engineered the tech they picked up with this purchase w/in a year...for no more than 1 billion or so...
...and they already have the advertiser relationships they could have leveraged.
***FS*** I guess they had a full pipeline.. or didn't have the confidence they could do it in-house (faster better cheaper)
Posted by: Steve M. | May 19, 2007 at 08:10 PM
Similar comments, it's amazing how a company involved in tech for so long has fallen so far behind two much younger companies (YHOO and GOOG). Also surprising they couldn't build their own aQuantive with $6 Billion and had to buy. You really have to wonder who is at the wheel at Microsoft.
***FS*** Picture 'magic 8 ball' sitting in Steve's office chair.
Posted by: RobB | May 20, 2007 at 06:23 AM