The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved Microsoft’s aQuantive acquisition by clearing the antitrust regulatory hurdle. Thus, the $6 billion deal will be on the road soon, most probably by the end of this year.
It is the largest acquisition for Microsoft symbolizing software giant’s long-term vision to compete against Google not only in the search advertising market but also in the other areas such as media planning, video on demand and IPTV.
Can Microsoft catch up Google?
In fact, Microsoft’s Live Search is not so sophisticated as compared to Google. Yahoo! is also a step ahead from Microsoft in terms of searches performed each month. According to latest comScore data, Google generates half of the US-based online searches in May, in comparison to meager 10.3% by Microsoft sites.
Interestingly, Google is in constant effort to acquire aQuanitive’s arc rival Double Click for $3.1 billion in cash, though there are some constraints at the FTC level.
All I can say is sheer competition than before.
