Steve Ballmer on acquisitions and competition with Google |
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Steve Ballmer on acquisitions and competition with Google
Steve Ballmer
Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer doesn't plan to make any acquisitions in the search business, instead he plans to compete with Google by investing in marketing and focusing on the company's recent partnership with Yahoo, Reuters reports.
The remarks come after Ballmer told TechCrunch two weeks ago that Microsoft would likely buy 15 companies in the fiscal year, most of which would be in the $50 million to $400 million range. Ballmer also had some interesting things to say about competition with Google in a wide-ranging interview with CNET.
CNET recently interviewed Ballmer, with the Microsoft CEO offering this somewhat punchy take on Google:
I mean, you know, competition is competition. I'm sure they welcome us into the search space, and glad to be there, and that's kind of the way capitalism works. You know, so far we've done exceedingly well, I would say, competing against Google's applications. They've been in market two years, three years. And yet at the end of the day outside of free usage of Gmail, we've seen almost no uptake of their stuff, and I think the statistics verify that. I don't know what they're doing in operating systems. They launched one, and then before it had any momentum they launched another. So, we'll have to wait and see. I don't even know what their operating system strategy is at this point.
Here's the full 25-minute interview.
With the Yahoo deal in place, Peter Kafka at Media Memo notes that there's little left for Microsoft to buy in the search buziness. But Kafka says that Microsoft could go after additional Yahoo-like partnerships, possibly with AOL and News Corp.
In the interview with Reuters, Ballmer also said that the information technology industry will help lead an economic recovery. But he also added that the economy will stay down for some time.
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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