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."

Wow...

[trogdor8667]

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 sure, since IE7 is supposed to block pop-ups

[ScentCone]

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.

Is anyone else scared?

[suman28]

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.

Re:What to do with them?

[ds_job]

I did think that $500 million was a little steep to buy the company, then shut it down, then distribute some Marketing PR to say that Microsoft had just made progress towards making you Windows PC safer. Why fix privacy loopholes if you can just buy the people who exploit / use them.

Re:What to do with them?

[Alien54]

I did think that $500 million was a little steep to buy the company, then shut it down,

Well, if you have enough deep pockets, that might be the way to get rid off spyware. buy their knowledge base and see how they do it.

Off course, this becomes the newest way to make money via a popup software. Get annoying enough so that Microsoft buys you.

I wonder which way this will effect the MS reputation?

Re:I thought that said CHINA!

[CSMastermind]

No, Microsoft has had a long record of strongly fighting spammers and their lot. Now Microsoft is releasing antivirus and antispyware tools. What better way to shut down a company that produces so much spyware and other unwanted adds than to buy them. From the deal, they'd not only get the code to the software (which could improve their removal tools) but also valuable code for personalization. I say they should go for it.

Re:What to do with them?

[BewireNomali]

This seems to me the kind of acquisition that microsoft might have wanted to keep under wraps. They have a shoddy reputation as a company, and buying an adware company just doesn't seem like a good PR move on paper. Even with the best spin you can put on it, it just gives the general user less reason to trust what it already feels is shoddy software. And that 500 million might be seen as rewarding the efforts of adware and spam outfits.

Keep in mind that I didn't read the article.

Re:Encouragement

[smooth wombat]

Of course it's Flambait. More and more mods on here don't have:

a) a sense of humor
b) an understanding of what sarcasm is
c) any idea of what they're doing

Unfortunately we're stuck with the current system until the bad mods can somehow be weeded out. Meta moderating doesn't seem to be doing the trick

Re:Antispyware, and now this?

[Mr_Silver]

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.

Crikey, nothing like jumping the gun on limited information.

If Microsoft bought Claria, killed the spyware division and used their personalisation tools to launch a Google Adwords competitor ... how exactly would that make the AntiSpyware's cred "take a dive"?

Re:I thought that said CHINA!

[tzuriel]

That's so weird. I also thought it said CHINA. I see that others experienced the same thing. There must be a name for this phenomenon. Any Grammarians out there?

Re:Is anyone else scared?

[Animats]

Department of Homeland Security appointments in the computer security area are disappointing. Amit Yoran, head of the "National Cyber Security Division" at DHS, quit in disgust. He was replaced by a lawyer and TV producer. [us-cert.gov] The "National Cyber Security Division" seems to have been pushed down to a lower level of the DHS bureauracy.