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May 15, 2006

Deconstructing Microsoft's Acquisitions

I posted a little while back that Microsoft has been much more active lately on the acquisition front. Don Dodge has given some more detail on Microsoft's 22 most recent company purchases. The list is dominated by Live and MSN, and almost a third of the companies were pre-VC:

• VirtualEarth aka MapPoint - Vexcel and GeoTango do 3D imaging and remote sensing.
• MSN - DeepMetrix (web site stats), Massive (videogame advertising), Onfolio (web research), Teleo (VoIP), Media-Streams (VoIP), MotionBridge (mobile search), TSSX (China mobile services), SeaDragon (Large Image manipulation)
• Windows Live - FolderShare (file synch), MessageCast (MSN Alerts)
• Speech Server - Unveil Technologies (call center SW)
• Security - Alacris (Identity Mgmt), FutureSoft (Web filtering)
• Systems Management - AssetMetrix (License tracking)
• Business Intelligence - ProClarity (analysis and visualization)
• Microsoft Game Studios - Lionhead Studios (games developer)
• Exchange Server - FrontBridge (email security)
• Microsoft Project - UMT (Portfolio Mgmt)
• Storage Server - Stringbean Software (iSCSI SAN)
• Vista - Apptimum (Application transfer)

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