Microsoft Snags Powerset, Eyes Yahoo Again
ADOTAS – While the Yahoo operetta may or may not be behind them, Microsoft guns ahead to compete with Google in the search arena. Plan B? Snapping up semantic search engine Powerset.
Semantic search has been much ballyhooed of late as the new, hot, smart way to search the Net – it utilizes technology that garners results based on a combo of understanding a word’s meaning and the context in which it’s used.
Financial details weren’t disclosed, but the word on the street is that the software giant ponied up about $100 million – a vastly cheaper purchase price than the initial $44.6 billion Microsoft offered Yahoo.
In its quest to best Google, Microsoft has shelled out about $8 billion in Internet acquisitions in the past two years. But they still have a long way to go: Google accounted for about two-thirds of all online searches in May, while Microsoft came in with 8.5% (Yahoo garnered the lion’s share of the rest).
But wait … is Microsoft’s quest for Yahoo really over? According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is once again eyeing Yahoo’s search business, and has “approached other media companies [Time Warner, News Corp., others] in recent days about joining in a deal that would effectively lead to Yahoo’s breakup,” the Journal states.
As of 9:22 a.m. Yahoo’s shares had climbed to $21.82, up about 8.02%, while Microsoft’s were flat, trading at $26.87.
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