EightBlack.

Fast is one of those companies that a lot of us probably have never heard of.

One, they’re based in Oslo, Norway. And second, they’re essentially in the “enterprise search” space, meaning they want customers who are big public companies with big budgets and who won’t collapse when they receive their first bill for services rendered.

Ok, I’m being harsh. By all accounts, Fast are a very slick outfit.

And as of yesterday, the founders and shareholders are now US$1.2 billion better off. Because that’s the amount they just accepted from Microsoft.

For some strange reason, I would have thought they were worth more. Their intellectual capital, human capital, sheer focus and global coverage is extremely impressive. Maybe there’s not much to spend $1.2 billion on in Norway…

Anyway.

Fast is the same company who built the search engine technology for Sensis.com.au.

Good on Microsoft for getting this deal done. It’s a perfect fit given Microsoft’s firm grip on the corporate and enterprise market and it’s probably Redmond’s most important search related acquisition to date.

And shame on Google for not getting in there first.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 5:29 am and is filed under Microsoft, Search Engines, Sensis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.