greenfield online

Microsoft just got back $20.75 million of the nearly $27 million it gave to Immersion six years ago.

Perhaps this contributed to the willy-nilly half a billion dollar investment it just made in acquiring Greenfield Online.

The Past

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Microsoft is looking to boost its online shopping search market share. The company has announced an acquisition of Greenfield Online, owners of popular shopping search site Ciao.com.

This is the largest purchase Microsoft has made in a while.

The company appears to be playing around with the money it had left from the Yahoo deal falling through. They dropped 486 million big ones on this one.

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StreetInsider.com Notable Mergers and Acquisitions of the Day:

• Greenfield Online, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRVY) entered into a merger agreement to be acquired by Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), via a cash tender offer for $17.50 per share in a transaction valued at approximately $486 million.
  
  In addition, Greenfield Online announced that immediately prior to entry into the merger agreement with Microsoft it had terminated its previously announced merger agreement with affiliates of Quadrangle Group LLC.

StreetInsider.com Notable Mergers and Acquisitions of the Day:

• The Korea Development Bank may have to yield to “intensifying” government pressure and abandon its tentative merger talks with Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) as the government authorities in Seoul continue to fight to prop-up the plunging won.
  
  Sources close to the state-run Korea Development Bank told The Times that the bank was now set to pull out of negotiations with Lehman.

StreetInsider.com After-Hours Movers:

Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) 14% HIGHER; reports Q1 EPS of $0.76, 16 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.60.

Revenues for the quarter were $403.2 million, versus the consensus of $377.17 million. Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) sees FY 08 EPS $5.25 to $5.65 versus $5.12.

Q2 EPS $1.25 to $1.40 versus $1.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE: AGO) 13% LOWER; reports a Q1 loss of $2.11, which may not compare to the analyst estimate of $0.65.

Greenfield Online Inc.