Working for fast 2.5 years. Today for 1.2B$ Fast Search & Transfer got acquired by Microsoft.
Will see what this will bring to table. As it seems we will be doing Enterprise Search business of Microsoft,
such as Sharepoint.
Here are some sights from the media:
Microsoft bought one of the world’s top makers of business-intelligence software Tuesday for its expanding stable of deluxe, high-end programs aimed at large corporations, agreeing to pay 6.6 billion Norwegian kroner for Fast Search & Transfer of Oslo.
The $1.2 billion purchase of Fast will give Microsoft its first search engine designed specifically for large companies, which are increasingly using so-called intelligence software to analyze their vast internal databases.
The purchase of Fast’s Enterprise Search Platform line of products, analysts said, will give Microsoft a professional-level search engine to complement search software like Web engine MSN Live Search or Microsoft Search Server and SharePoint Server for small businesses.
“What this purchase will do is allow Microsoft to go to the largest companies in the world and say, ‘We can handle every search need you ever dreamed of,’ ” said Whit Andrews, an analyst at the research firm Gartner in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. “I would not be surprised also if Microsoft did not incorporate Fast’s search technology into some of its broader consumer search programs.”
