Slashdot Mirror
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."
...and I got really scared there for a second. ;)
It could, of course, be a good thing, if they can buy the company, and use their software for something other than spyware and popups!
libertarianswag.com
With any luck they'll buy them and then blow them up.
Microsofts Antispyware's cred just took a dive for no fault of its own. Pity, since Giant (which it was before MS purchased it) was one of the better antispyware apps.
Go somewhere random
Microsoft will just embed Gator into Longhorn.
What are they thinking, don't they realize what this is going to do to their image? Microsoft, the company cherished for it's warm human point of view and high quality software, associating itself with such a low-life company.
Yes, let's reward these companies for their abuses of the internet. 500 million reasons to be unscrupulous in business. This is going to make spyware/adware that much worse. Yea, let's here it for best business practices!!! /rant
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." -- Albert Einstein
Just imagine. IE is already the browser most known for succombing to popups. Now Microsoft is going to own the company who makes them. Either Microsoft is doing something smart by trying to buy the technology BEHIND the popups, making them easier to block... (yeah right)... Or soon, MS will launch a Google-like system that sees us running OpenOffice, and pops up a dialog for MS Office. We'll be running Winamp, and see a popup for WMP. Just imagine! Windows popups! How fun will that be. *runs and hides from the evil Windows*
Well, at least deciding which company we hate most should get a lot easier.
as if millions of pcs suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Microsoft should buy whoever made Bonzai Buddy (or whatever that purple guy was called.) The integration of that and Clippy would be revolutionary.
When they combine, they form a new terror, as vast as Microsoft yet as wicked as Claria -- and our weapons will be useless against it. It will destroy all of Meta-Tokyo, unless we can find the Magic Princess in time and give her the Moon Crystal and the Seven Essences! Your quest begins here...
(Press 'B' to continue)
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
> One person briefed on the deal said there was opposition within Microsoft to the acquisition.
;)
Would that be from the AntiSpyware group?
-- OpenVerse Visual Chat: http://openverse.com
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.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Pop-up security updates, click here to patch XP, "Win an X-Box 360 if you can whack Ballmer" Microsoft ads, Pop-up spam on competitors web sites. It is the beginning of the Microsoft Dirty War.
"I drank WHAT?!"--Socrates
Gator=evil money sucking leeches...
MS=(I'll let you figure that one...)
One division of M$ will infect software from another divsion while a 3rd division tries to clear it off. This sounds like M$ has some serious inner turmoir going on? Talk about not being able to make up your mind.
I really want to see how the PR people market this.
Evolution or ID?
I wonder if this buyout is just a way for Microsoft to kill off a whole slew of spyware? Seems to me that 500 million is a fair price to rid us of Claria's crap.
Gorkman
You mean Claria, not Microsoft.
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.
This rumor defies logic. By acquiring a spyware maker, no matter whether or not they intend to use the spyware themselves, Microsoft would seriously endanger their efforts to gain credibility among technical users.
Claria is 'fruit of the poisoned tree'.
Typically, acquisitions like this are done because it's cheaper to buy target company A then it is to develop a solution internally, and any competent business manager should be taking into account the 'cost' of associating Microsoft with a company with Claria's history.
I would guess that the story is a plant, and that someone fell for it. Was the purpose of the plant to expose leakers? Or was it a well orchestrated prank? Either way, it seems contra-indicated for good business, and successful business is Microsoft's #1 product.
I wonder if Steve Ballmer has any extra pot he can sell me...
I don't think Steve is smoking pot. It's something way stronger than that. Something top secret and isn't on the streets strong.
Evolution or ID?
"...the company cherished for it's warm human point of view and high quality software..."
I think you misspelled "crap."
It's a common typo, they keys are like, right next to each other.
(with apologies to bash)
Marketing value is worth a lot. People still haven't caught on that Google's largest asset is the huge marketing knowledge they have access to both directly and indirectly (searches); the text ads are cute but not the main show. You'll see.
Number of times in the entire history of the world that buying off thugs has ever made them go away: 0
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
NWO : "For only $29.99, we won't tell the wife/DEA/Homeland Security!"
Oh damn, forgot to click "Post Anonymously"...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
...that there's someone who's in the dark on this:
Linky
--------
This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
When I heard MS was going to get adware and spyware under control, I thought they meant with a program...not by buying the whole adware companies!
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
> new: We know where you've been!
That's not (+5, Funny), it's (+5, Informative), you insensitive clod!
Gator CPO at the Department of Homeland Security
Art imitates Life. Life imitates Slashdot.
actually, i see no problem with embedding something into the windows kernel to check if it's a legal copy. you can't get security patches for XP unless you have a legal copy, so what's the point of having it if you're susceptible to most of that crap that's floating around?
while MS wouldn't pay that much to stop them from harassing people, they would pay that much to get the code to the software to make their anti-spyware solution the best. they would also pay that much to get the data that claria has collected in order to make their own web stuff better. think about all the browsing habits claria has collected from people (the average person, in fact). they could easily use that data to help push them ahead of google.
please me, have no regrets.
The good news is that we won't have to worry about Gator being ported to Linux or other operating systems now...
This is an entry in Bill Gates's diary: