Microsoft Bids for FAST

In a recent press release Microsoft has announced an offer to acquire Fast Search and Transfer, FAST. At Findwise we are of course excited about this, as it clearly shows how the world’s leading software vendor has understood the importance of search to the modern enterprise. We are also convinced that the result will be an excellent merger between technical as well as market knowledge of both parties. Since Findwise has a close partnership with Fast and Microsoft you can be sure that we will continue to deliver cutting edge solutions in the future.

An excerpt from the pressrelease:

“Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced that it will make an offer to acquire Fast Search & Transfer ASA (OSE: “FAST”), a leading provider of enterprise search solutions, through a cash tender offer for 19.00 Norwegian kroner (NOK) per share…” “… FAST’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer. In addition, shareholders representing in aggregate 37 percent of the outstanding shares, including FAST’s two largest institutional shareholders, Orkla ASA and Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe, have irrevocably undertaken to accept the offer. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of calendar year 2008.”

Microsoft pressrelease
Article in reuters

Basic Enterprise Search is a Commodity – Let’s Go Further! Trends for 2008

So looking ahead, what are the trends for enterprise search 2008? Well, we have already been talking about Microsoft and IBM and there are a few other vendors (such as Google and Oracle) that have presented ways to develop their enterprise search solutions (looking at clustering, categorisation, taxonomies, entity extraction, visualisation etc.). To conclude: the simple search box is soon a commodity – a search solution for enterprises has to go beyond this.

As a result, experts believe that 2008 will become a year with stronger cooperation and more strategic differentiation among the leading vendors.

BI and search is one example, search within Rich Media (video, speech and music) another. The largest vendors are looking at new ways to develop and enrich their search capabilities and acquisitions of, or cooperation with, other companies is most likely to continue.

The next trend for 2008 is something that I personally look forward to: the user revolution
Enterprise search has for a long time been focusing on technical aspects, such as ability to scale, linguistics features etc. The predicted new era uses enterprise search as a tool based on user needs. At Findwise we have rapidly become clear of this since the need for our usability expert is great. Her work focuses on the end-user, and how the technical platforms can be used to support his or her everyday work. My believe is that this perspective will bridge the gap between IT and business, making enterprise search a tool to enable information retrieval and access in new ways.

What is your opinion? Are there more things to add for the future of enterprise search the following year?

Findwise wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward hearing from you in 2008!