2. Technology Acquisition
• It is the process of acquiring the technology of
another person or firm for solving their issues or
achieving the objectives.
• It reduces the cost of developing the new technology
because it include hiring of professional software
engineer.
4. Acquisition of Forethought
• Microsoft's first acquisition was Forethought on
June 29, 1987.
• Forethought was founded in 1983 and developed a
presentation program that would later be known as
Microsoft PowerPoint on December 31, 1997,
5. Acquisition of Hotmail
• Microsoft acquired Hotmail for $500 million, its
largest acquisition at the time, and integrated
Hotmail into its MSN group of services.
• Hotmail, a free webmail service founded in 1996 by
Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia, had more than 8.5
million subscribers earlier that month.
6. Acquisition of Visco Corporation
• Microsoft acquired Seattle-based Visio Corporation
on January 7, 2000 for $1.375 billion.
• Visio, a software company, was founded in 1990 as
Axon Corporation, and had its initial public offering
in November 1995.
• The company developed the diagramming
application software, Visio, which was integrated
into Microsoft's product line as Microsoft Visio after
its acquisition.
7. Acquisition of Navision
• On July 12, 2002, Microsoft purchased Navision for
$1.33 billion.
• The company, which developed the technology for
the Microsoft Dynamics NAV enterprise resource
planning software, was integrated into Microsoft as
a new division named Microsoft Business Solutions,
later renamed to Microsoft Dynamics.
8. Acquisition of Quantive
• Microsoft purchased a Quantive, an advertising
company, on August 13, 2007 for $7.333 billion.
• Before the acquisition, a Quantive was ranked 14th
in terms of revenue among advertising agencies
worldwide.
• Quantive had three subsidiaries at the time of the
acquisition: Avenue A/Razorfish, one of the world's
largest digital agencies, Atlas Solutions, and DRIVE
Performance Solutions.
9. Acquisition of Fast Search & Transfer
• Microsoft acquired the Norwegian enterprise
search company Fast Search & Transfer on April 25,
2008 for $1.191 billion to boost its search
technology.
10. Acquisition of Skype
• On May 10, 2011, Microsoft announced its
acquisition of Skype Technologies, creator of the
VoIP service Skype, for $8.5 billion.
• With a value 32 times larger than Skype's operating
profits, the deal was Microsoft's largest acquisition
ever.
• Skype would become a division within Microsoft,
with Skype's former CEO Tony Bates —now its
president —reporting to Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer.
11. Acquisition of Nokia
• On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced its intent
to acquire the mobile hardware division of Nokia
(which had established a long-term partnership with
Microsoft to produce smart phones built off its
Windows Phone platform) in a deal worth 3.79 billion
Euros, along with another 1.65 billion to license Nokia's
portfolio of patents.
• Steve Ballmer considered the purchase to be a "bold
step into the future" for both companies, primarily as a
result of its recent collaborations.
• The acquisition, scheduled to close in early 2014
pending regulatory approval, will not include the Here
mapping service or the infrastructure division Nokia
Solutions and Networks, which will be retained by
Nokia.
