Microsoft offers $1.2 billion for Fast
142
Software maker makes a grab for Norway's Fast Search &#38; Transfer, a leader at the high end of the business search market.
251907
Microsoft Corp  on Friday said  it had offered to acquire Yahoo Inc  in a proposed cash  and stock deal valued at $44.6 billion.
624889
Software dinosaur Microsoft paid millions for a tiny piece of trendy internet property Facebook. But the company needs something to make it hot again
516087
International Business Machines Corp.  has put its personal computing business up for sale in a deal  that could be worth as much as $2 billion, the New York Times  reported on Friday.
529219
Microsoft posted a record $16.4 billion in revenue during the company's second business quarter, shattering its previous record by $2 billion. The software giant also blew away Wall Street expectations by recording a 92 percent rise in quarterly earnings in comparison with the year-earlier period.
703500
Microsoft&#39;s $1.2 billion acquisition bid for Oslo-based Fast Search and Transfer and a dour report on Amazon marked the new year&#39;s first full trading week in the United States, as technology company share prices continued to slide.
131197
The $155 million cash deal is the latest in a wave of acquisitions for the computer maker.
693996
Microsoft may end up having to raise the amount it is willing to pay for Yahoo if the software company&#39;s stock continues to drop while Yahoo&#39;s continues to rise.In the week since&#160;Microsoft made its surprise bid for Yahoo, the price Microsoft is willing to offer the Internet company has dropped by nearly 7 percent as Microsoft&#39;s share price has fallen. In the meantime, Yahoo&#39;s shares have risen in value, trading at nearly the $31 per share Microsoft was willing to pay, making the company potentially worth a higher asking price and the offer vulnerable to higher bids.Microsoft announced its offer to acquire Yahoo on Feb. 1, saying it would pay $31 for half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. Microsoft&#39;s half-cash/half-stock offer to Yahoo was valued at about $44.6 billion at the time it was made.The stock half was based on the $32.60 Microsoft share price at the end of Thursday, the day before the deal was announced last Friday. Yahoo&#39;s share price at the close of market on Jan. 31 was $19.18. The cash half of the deal was $22.3 billion, which, when considering Microsoft agreed to pay $31 per share, is based on half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares being 719,354,838.Microsoft has not publicly said what number of outstanding shares it has based its offer price on. In its form 10-Q filed Nov. 9, 2007, Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares as of Oct. 31, 2007, were 1,336,444,034. However, cutting that number in half and multiplying it by Microsoft&#39;s $31 per-share offer adds up to $20.7 billion, not the $22.3 billion in cash Microsoft is offering.By Friday afternoon, Microsoft&#39;s share price was down about 12 percent at $28.40. Based on that price and assuming that 719,354,838 is the other half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares -- and then factoring in the $22.3 billion cash offer -- the amount of the bid stands at $41.7 billion.Microsoft&#39;s stock is likely down due to its offer for a number of reasons, said a financial analyst who was interviewed Friday and asked not to be named. Investors may not be happy with the money Microsoft is willing to pay for Yahoo, and&#160;strategic questions surrounding how the companies will pull off a merger&#160;successfully also are driving the stock down.Moreover, the deal is expected to dilute Microsoft&#39;s earnings in fiscal 2009 and perhaps even in fiscal 2010, so the company&#39;s earnings predictions likely will come down, the analyst said.On the other hand, Yahoo&#39;s stock has been buoyed by speculation there could be other, higher bidders for the company now that Microsoft has shown its hand. Yahoo stock has risen nearly 34 percent since the deal was announced; on Friday afternoon it was trading at nearly $29, which is only slightly lower than the current per-share for the stock half of Microsoft&#39;s offer.Microsoft has declined to comment about whether it will adjust its offer so that the final amount of the deal will be the original $44.6 billion offered. The cash half for the time being remains the same, sources close to the company said Friday. However, this could change in last-minute dealings if Microsoft&#39;s stock continues to lose value while Yahoo&#39;s rises, and other companies offer competitive bids for Yahoo in the meantime.
166314
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Microsoft Corp   offered to buy Yahoo Inc  for $44.6 billion, in a bold  bid to transform two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy  competitor for market leader Google Inc .
59981
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.
55397
Microsoftâs $1.2 billion bid for a Norwegian search software company is seen as an effort to add tools to its lucrative Office products and fend off Google.
264116
The Financial Times reported yesterday that Microsoft paid the Computer and Communications Industry Association $19.75 million earlier this month to settle an antitrust suit, and that the association&#39;s top official received $9.75 million of that amount.
150286
Microsoft made a $1.2 billion bid on Norwegian enterprise search vendor, Fast Search and Transfer, or FAST, a company that could boost its Office product suite and compete with Google.
119997
No. 1 software maker Microsoft Corp.   on Thursday awarded restricted stock worth $951  million, based on its current share price, as performance  bonuses to some 900 executives and managers.
73370
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.
494799
Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it would pay $240 million for a minority equity stake in Facebook in a deal that values the social networking Web site at $15 billion.
708867
No. 1 software maker Microsoft Corp.   MSFT.O on Thursday awarded restricted stock worth $951   million, based on its current share price, as performance   bonuses to some 900 executives and managers.