Microsoft interested in Fast purchase

Microsoft has announced that it is interested in taking over enterprise search company Fast Search and Transfer.

The firm announced today that it has offered $1.2bn for the Norwegian company, a 42 per cent premium on its current share value. Announcing the intention in a statement Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, said, "Enterprise search is becoming an indispensable tool to businesses of all sizes, helping people find, use and share critical business information quickly."

"Until now organizations have been forced to choose between powerful, high end search technologies or more mainstream, infrastructure solutions. The combination of Microsoft and Fast gives customers a new choice: a single vendor with solutions that span the full range of customer needs."

According to the statement the two companies possess many complementary technologies and strengths – Microsoft has the customer reach, while Fast has " best-in-class high end solutions".

"This acquisition gives Fast an exciting way to spread our cutting-edge search technologies and innovations to more and more organisations across the world," said John Lervik, chief executive at Fast.

In November last year Microsoft posted beta versions of its own Search Server 2008 software, one release being free, and one said to be planned for commercial, paid for release.

The firm was aiming for a general release of the tools in the first half of this year.