Microsoft (finally makes a wise mobile search move) Buys FAST Search and Transfer
Rating: now mobile search is getting interesting
Microsoft will pay USD 1.2 billion to buy the Norwegian white label online and mobile search solution company Fast Search and Transfer.
According to this source
FAST is profitable and the buy-out is a 42% premium over the current share valuation.
What we think?
FAST Search and Transfer had its hay day about two years ago when it became a USD 100 million dollar company. I will never forget the Fastsearch and Transfer first ever conference in the US. The focus was put sales and an aggressive new strategy was announced.
I fear that the aggressive stance was a bit too much as a few months ago the company gave an analyst conference where it committed to saving money and re-focusing on the core business.
In this light, a sale is not un-expected.
But what has Microsoft purchased?
Fastsearch and Transfer is a company that focuses on enterprise search. It has a long list of clients in the online space and was the initial mobile search provider for Vodafone back in 2002.
More recently it has signed a deal with Japanese company Rakuten and is creating a mobile search portal together in Japan. It also has partnerships and license agreements with InfoSpace (now Motricity) and mobilePeople. Its ambitions in the mobile search space haven’t been realized – but this is not because its technology is not strong.
As a business, I have said from day one that FAST’s lack of amazing success in the mobile search space was due to lack of focus on marketing. FAST has prided itself as technology company meaning that winning and sustaining carrier sales very very difficult.
This changed with the partnership with InfoSpace and everyone know – that if there is one thing that Microsoft can do well its marketing. The sale of FAST to Microsoft is the step that Microsoft has needed to expand its business and make its search an asset not a hiccup.
More information, competitive actions and detail in The Mobile Search Analyst.
All articles on FAST here
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