Ballmer Says No To Big Purchases
In a recent Web 2.0 conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer declared that the company wasn't changing their acquisition strategy. The Redmond Giant will continue making smaller purchases in the $50 million to $1 billion range instead of larger, multi-billion dollar purchases.
“The CEO of the world's largest software maker said it is logical for people to speculate that main rivals would join forces to take on an industry leader. In this case, Ballmer was referring to dominant Web search leader Google.
Microsoft historically has shunned costly acquisitions, opting to purchase lots of less expensive companies. But company watchers saw this year's $US6 billion acquisition of digital advertising company aQuantive as a change in strategy.”
It seems that Microsoft is looking to follow a path similar to AOL, in that the company wants to generate a large portion of their revenue from advertising on the Web. It will be interesting to see what innovations these smaller purchases can generate, especially considering that Microsoft is going to face some serious competition from Google and their advertising network.
“The CEO of the world's largest software maker said it is logical for people to speculate that main rivals would join forces to take on an industry leader. In this case, Ballmer was referring to dominant Web search leader Google.
Microsoft historically has shunned costly acquisitions, opting to purchase lots of less expensive companies. But company watchers saw this year's $US6 billion acquisition of digital advertising company aQuantive as a change in strategy.”
It seems that Microsoft is looking to follow a path similar to AOL, in that the company wants to generate a large portion of their revenue from advertising on the Web. It will be interesting to see what innovations these smaller purchases can generate, especially considering that Microsoft is going to face some serious competition from Google and their advertising network.
