Microsoft have announced they will be involved in a major take over for Norwegian based Fast Search & Transfer which offers enterprise search to over 3500 companies mostly in the Fortune 500.

Microsoft’s offer was 19.00 Norwegian Kroner ($3.56) per share. The offer represents a 42 percent premium to the closing share price for Fast as at January 4 and values FAST at 6.6 billion NOK ($1.2 billion U.S). Fast’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer as is an impressive only $400Million short of Google’s acquisition of Youtbe.

Fast Search and transfer are a small company compared with Microsoft and with search a hot market in the Technology Industry it would seem like it the perfect opportunity to add to the already existing Microsoft brand. I was speaking today with a friend about Microsoft being the largest and one of the most powerful company’s in the world at the moment.

Microsoft’s plan is to grow by acquisition which is a great way of expanding a company, again like with Google acquiring FeedBurner, Youtube and DoubleClick they have the chance to explore new areas and explore different emerging industry’s in Technology.

There is a lot of people who still doubt weather or not there is a bubble in technology right now, but when we see the valuations of social media such as social networking sites such as Facebook at $8Billion and Digg at $300million and again to mention Googles $1.65 take over of video sharing website Youtube it is hard not to think otherwise.

About FAST
FAST, which was founded in 1997, creates the real-time search and business intelligence solutions that are behind the scenes at the world’s best-known companies with the most demanding information challenges. FAST’s flexible and scalable integrated technology platform and personalized portal connects users, regardless of medium, to the relevant information they need.

FAST is headquartered in Norway and is publicly traded under the ticker symbol ‘FAST’ on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The FAST Group operates globally with presence in Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia, the Americas, and the Middle East. For further information about FAST, please visit fast.no.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

The offer will not be made, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States. Any and all materials related to the offer, should not be sent or otherwise distributed in or into the United States, whether by use of the United States mail or by any means or instrumentality of United States interstate or foreign commerce (including, but without limitation, the mail, facsimile transmission, telex, telephone and the Internet) or any facility of a United States national securities exchange, and the offer cannot be accepted by any such use, means or instrumentality, in or from within the United States. Accordingly, the offer document and any related materials are not being, and must not be, sent or otherwise distributed in, into or from the United States or, in their capacities as such, to custodians, trustees or nominees holding shares of FAST for United States persons, and persons receiving any such documents (including custodians, nominees and trustees) must not distribute or send them in, into or from the United States. Any purported acceptance of the offer resulting directly or indirectly from a violation of these restrictions will be invalid. No shares of FAST are being solicited from a resident of the United States and, if sent in response by a resident of the United States, will not be accepted.

Sourches: Forbes / PR Newswire, Microsoft Corp, Fast.na & Techcrunch

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Tags: Microsoft, technology bubble

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.