MSN to Buy FAST Enterprise Search

MSN has announced that it will buy the FAST “Enterprise” Search engine for $1.2 dollars. 

Fast is a Norwegian enterprise search company focusing on providing tailored search software and solutions to large global businesses.  The deal was announced last Tuesday and gives Microsoft a strong footing in the Enterprise search market where “Fast” has traditionally been a leader. 

Analysts say the purchase of Fast Enterprise Search will fill in the gap by giving Microsoft a strong footing in the business search sector and complement Microsoft’s MSN Live Search and Microsoft Search Server and SharePoint Server for small businesses.

Where Google is a dominiant player in the mainstreaam search market, MSN is now trying to get a dominant position in Enterprise search where they’ve always been comfortable.  Through the acquisition of Fast, they’re well on their way.

Fast Searh is now a business offering but its story began with consumer web through its AlltheWeb.com search engine which was aquired by Overture in 2003 and later purchased by Yahoo!

It’ll be interesting to see what Google will now do to counter this unexpected move.