Microsoft spend a jaw dropping $486 million dollars on its latest purchase of ciao.com owned by Greenfield: The $486 Million Dollar Purchase Seems like Microsoft got tried of the 'yahoo game' and wanted to step into the 'ciao world'
Microsoft can't match google or atleast isn't interested too... the bottom line is that the Google algorithm is much too superior.. I think that Microsoft knows that and has instead decided to focus on niches with purchasing power in hopes of increasing revenue....
MSFT is simply diversifying their holdings in the Internet arena, and since the Ciao network is basically a shopping comparison engine (albeit with certain social networking aspects) it expands their reach with e-tailers (and opens up a big opportunity for their ad network (AdCenter) to hopefully gain traction with those online retailers. Not to mention the revenue from commissions on clients they send to the sites that make a purchase. Rob
aperently yahoo isn't that big here in america. but in siome other countries, people use yahoo more then google. kinda wierd but true. im sure yahoo is also one of microsofts competitors.
google has just now started so it will take time to run in full flow. yahoo is common but many ppl usese hotmail.. dont know why
It is really not jaw dropping. To a company like Microsoft who has so much money that it had always been buying back its shares on the open market, half a billion is really small change to it.
That's a huge price, but long term it may be worth it. I don't think this purchase has anything to do with Google though. They are expanding their advertising network, not trying to improve their search engine. Look at how much Google paid for YouTube ($1.65B) and MySpace ($900M for just the ads). Yes those websites get far more traffic, but the traffic going to ciao isn't a bunch of teenagers. It is shoppers ready to make a purchase.
I'm not sure if "ciao.com" will be worth it. I'm sure the goal is to help promote their products to the consumers on that site since it is mainly people who are wanting to spend money...but this ist he first time I have heard of ciao.com!
ciao has a massive member base... and to say it's already a market research firm aswell as a shopping review site, it could well be worth it to microsoft... market research isn't cheap for a large company (since they want a lot of figures to analyse), and you have to consider the reveneue stream that ciao.com must have if microsoft want it.
Microsoft err they can buy & create whatever they like.its just exploits which make life of ppl buy MS products difficult
Maybe they are just using google to get free traffic via publicity and not actually trying to take over the world.