Tom B

Online Ad Bubble: aQuantive Deal Makes No Financial Sense For Microsoft

Web TV acquisition-- MSFT spent a half-billion (but dollars were worth more). result--no profit, no product.

Spyglass acquisition-- lead to Internet Explorer. IE actually WAS a decent browser for about 2 years-- but it never made MSFT a dime.

Bungie acquisition-- Halo is supposed to be a great game. The Xbox is supposed to be semi-ok-- but MSFT is bleeding money on the XBox platform; thus, again, their corporate stupidity shines through.

Connectix acquisition-- gave then Virtual PC. A product now obsolete.

Great Plains software acquisition-- gave them a relatively uninteresting accounting product.

Yep, they have a pretty godawful record. Perhaps their worst acquistion was Steve Ballmer, and that occurred a long ways back.

Did Microsoft Panic With This aQuantive Buy?

I recall when they bought Spyglass. That led to Internet Explorer-- another disastrous product for MSFT. While it was pretty decent for a few years, it has been just about totally neglected for roughly a decade. And it has NEVER made MSFT a dime; who pays for web browsers?

Did Microsoft Panic With This aQuantive Buy?

I'm loving this: Vista sales abysmal; XBox still hemorhaging money, and now they buy a nothing ad company for 6 B? We may enjoy a post-MSFT future sooner than my wildest imagining, with Ballmer at the helm.