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| Microsoft: search continues, this time with meaning |
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| Wednesday, 09 July 2008 | |
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‘Beast’ to buy semantic Web company Powerset. Yahoo! back in play?
Thwarted (so far) in its bid to beef up its search capabilities by taking over Yahoo! (click and click), software Leviathan Microsoft (aka the Beast of Redmond) has agreed to acquire semantic Web company Powerset for incorporation into Live Search. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Internet postings have suggested sums around the US$100mn mark. The semantic Web is generally characterised as one in which ‘meaning’ and ‘context’ inform users’ searches, as opposed to just relying on ‘search terms’. Here’s an enterprise-oriented definition offered by the organisers of the European Semantic Technology Conference (ESTC2008) to be held in Vienna, Austria, from 24 to 26 September: Semantic technology allows the interconnection of data and content based on its meaning, making company and Web knowledge management much smarter and more efficient. Examples for enterprise applications include semantic search, Service Oriented Architectures, knowledge engineering, collaboration and Web 3.0 applications. Semantic technology has the potential to completely change the way enterprises work. And here’s part of what the Ovum consultancy made of the Powerset purchase (which followed Microsoft’s US$1.2bn purchase of Fast Search and Transfer (FAST) in January this year): “There are three principal reasons for acquiring a company: to gain the technology, which Microsoft certainly has here; to gain the customer base, which is not relevant as the Powerset Wikipedia search is still only a beta product; and to acquire the people - and indeed the senior people in Powerset are a bright and interesting bunch, including former Palo Alto Research Center staff and a former web architect for Yahoo!.” stated a posting on the Ovum ‘Straight Talk’ service authored by Madan Sheina and Mike Davis, respectively principal and senior Ovum analysts. “What the acquisition will do however is raise the profile of semantic and natural language search as a way to improve the quality of Internet searches.” Cloud Yahoo! Land Meanwhile, back in Cloud Yahoo! Land, colourful corporate investor Carl C. Icahn is again pushing for a Microsoft take-over of Yahoo! via a board change-out at the search engine company, Microsoft says it’s hearing where Icahn is coming from, and Yahoo! appears to be holding out for more moolah. Part of Icahn’s open letter to Yahoo! shareholders reads: “During the past week I have spoken frequently with Steve Ballmer, ceo of Microsoft. Several of our conversations have lasted as long as an hour. Also, a few of our discussions have taken place while other top executives, such as Kevin Johnson, participated. Our talks centred on the industry in general but, more importantly, on how Yahoo! and Microsoft can do a transaction together. Steve made it abundantly clear that, due to his experiences with Yahoo! during the past several months, he cannot negotiate any transaction with the current board.” Icahn continued: “However, Steve made it clear to me that if a new board were elected, he would be interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the ‘search’ function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company. He stated that Microsoft would be willing to enter into discussion immediately if the new board that has been nominated were elected.” Here’s a bit of the Microsoft response: “We confirm, however, that after the shareholder election Microsoft would be interested in discussing with a new board a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the ‘search’ function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company.” And here’s what Yahoo! chipped in with: “If Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer really want to purchase Yahoo!, we again invite them to make a proposal immediately. And if Mr. Icahn has an actual plan for Yahoo! beyond hoping that Microsoft might actually consummate a deal which they have repeatedly walked away from, we would be very interested in hearing it.” What we want to know: where are the Houyhnhnms in this drama? John Williamson |
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