Microsoft to Pay $486 Million for Greenfield

Microsoft on Friday said it will buy Web-based survey company Greenfield Online for about $486 million in cash in a move that will bolster its search and e-commerce services in Europe.

Microsoft will pay $17.50 a share for Greenfield which tops an earlier proposal by buyout firm Quadrangle Group to acquire the company for $15.50 per share.

 

The deal, Microsoft's first since it failed to acquire Yahoo for $45 billion, will give the software giant access to Ciao.com, which provides consumer reviews and ratings along with comparison prices from online merchants in Europe.

The Ciao community will be of great benefit to the Microsodt Live Search platform according to Tami Reller, chief financial officer for Microsoft Windows and Online services.

Microsoft, which handles about 9 percent of Web searches in the U.S., has an even lower share abroad. The company is adding more services that help consumers find products on the Internet, an area where it says its software is more effective than Google's.

Most of the revenue from search advertising comes from transactional searches and improving the results for those queries is Microsoft's best chance to make more money.

Munich-based Ciao operates in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The company said its sites get more than 26 million unique visitors a month, 4.4 million of them in Germany, and so far has generated more than 5 million product reviews. Ciao was founded in 1999. Greenfield paid $154 million for it in 2005.

Ciao will be integrated into Microsoft Live Search.

Microsoft said it will sell off Greenfield's main business which is, Internet survey solutions, to an unnamed financial buyer.