Microsoft to purchase Ciao owner
Monday, 01, Sep 2008 10:46
Microsoft is to purchase interactive media and services company Greenfield Online, the owner of comparison shopping portal Ciao, it has been announced.
The acquisition will extend the software giant's search and e-commerce services in Europe, said Tami Reller, corporate vice-president and chief financial officer for Windows and online services at the company.
She added: "The team at Ciao has built a passionate consumer community based on intuitive technology and extensive merchant relationships that we believe will deliver incremental benefit to the Microsoft Live Search platform."
Albert Angrisani, president and chief executive officer of Greenfield said he believes the transition will have a "positive outcome" for both customers and employees.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2008.
News of the purchase follows news that Yahoo! and Intel have previewed plans for a television application framework called the Widget Channel, which will allow developers to use technology such as XML and HTML to write applications for it.