Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100M plus

Re:Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100... by staunch on Thursday June 26, 2008 @07:55PM (#229260)

A very low price if they really believed all the hot air they were pumping out. It's an implicit admission by Powerset's management and board that they didn't genuinely believe they were about to do something extraordinary.

It was already pretty obvious that Microsoft is so braindead these days that they'll spend hundreds of millions for the mere appearance of being able to compete with Google in internet technology. I suppose if their stock stays up an extra $100 million it sort of pays for itself.

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Re:Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100... by pchristensen on Thursday June 26, 2008 @08:24PM (#229275)

"A very low price if they really believed all the hot air they were pumping out"

If Powerset sells for $100M, then they clearly don't believe their own hot air. I'd be very nervous if someone accepted an offer for much less than they claimed to be worth.

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Re:Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100... by bluelu on Friday June 27, 2008 @05:42AM (#229617)

In my opinion they were simply running out of money and have no business model whatsoever.

100 Million is still a lot of money for something that only searches wikipedia.

With 100 million $ you could hire some of the brigthest engineers around the world and build this in less in a year.

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Re:Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100... by rms on Thursday June 26, 2008 @10:14PM (#229337)

We're in a recession, I don't blame them for taking what they can get.

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Re:Microsoft to buy semantic search engine Powerset for $100... by PieSquared on Thursday June 26, 2008 @10:13PM (#229335)

Eh, you're not Microsoft, it seems.

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