Microsoft In Talks To Buy Claria

axonis writes "For the last two weeks, Microsoft has been in talks to buy Claria, an adware marketer formerly called Gator, and best known for its pop-up ads and software that tracks people visiting Web sites. The offer price on the table as recently as Wednesday was $500 million. One person briefed on the deal said there was opposition within Microsoft to the acquisition. Analysts said Microsoft would probably be most interested in the long-term potential of Claria's personalization software rather than its pop-up ads."

Comments

Well sure, since IE7 is supposed to block pop-ups

[ScentCone]

Besides, since Ballmer's indicated that they want to "catch Google," they'd better be able to do some very, very clever stuff with ad targeting on the MSN search side. Might as well buy (rather than build) a business unit that already has a jillion-view history, and some people that have waded through all this stuff a million times.

Though, they should take at least a couple of the Gator people out back and wack 'em just on principle.

Is anyone else scared?

[suman28]

What in the world is going on?
First, the senior level executive from Gator goes to work for Homeland Security (head still spinning from that one).
And now, Microsoft is in talks to buy Claria?
I smell something fishy. Suddenly, the HSD will be buying all things Microsoft, in the name of anti-terrorism and patriotism.

Re:Is anyone else scared?

[Animats]

Department of Homeland Security appointments in the computer security area are disappointing. Amit Yoran, head of the "National Cyber Security Division" at DHS, quit in disgust. He was replaced by a lawyer and TV producer. The "National Cyber Security Division" seems to have been pushed down to a lower level of the DHS bureauracy.

Re:I thought that said CHINA!

[CSMastermind]

No, Microsoft has had a long record of strongly fighting spammers and their lot. Now Microsoft is releasing antivirus and antispyware tools. What better way to shut down a company that produces so much spyware and other unwanted adds than to buy them. From the deal, they'd not only get the code to the software (which could improve their removal tools) but also valuable code for personalization. I say they should go for it.

Re:Encouragement

[smooth wombat]

Of course it's Flambait. More and more mods on here don't have:

a) a sense of humor
b) an understanding of what sarcasm is
c) any idea of what they're doing

Unfortunately we're stuck with the current system until the bad mods can somehow be weeded out. Meta moderating doesn't seem to be doing the trick