Overture To Buy FAST Just A Week After Buying AltaVista

from the can-you-search-for- dept

Well, when the search technology industry consolidates, they certainly don't waste any time. Last week Overture surprised many people by buying search technology has-been AltaVista, and without having had the time to think about what that means, they've already gone off and bouoght FAST Search & Transfer, operators of the AlltheWeb.com search engine (which I use fairly often). So, now, Overture has to figure out what to do with two different search sites when, for years, they've been making fun of Google for operating a search site that competes with their own private-label customers. Even more to the point, they now have three sets of search technology to integrate. The rumor on this one is that it was a "defensive" move to make sure that Microsoft couldn't buy FAST. Overture claims that they're pretty full now on search technologies, so don't expect them to buy any more companies. However, I'm sure that all the other search technology providers are quickly being checked out by other potential buyers (such as Microsoft). So who's the next search tech company to fall? Ask Jeeves? Looksmart?

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