With the Microhoo deal dying off in July, Microsoft has turned its acquisitive eye to Europe, where it has reached an agreement to acquire Greenfield Online, the company behind Ciao, one of Europe's leading price comparison, shopping, and consumer reviews sites.
Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will buy all of the outstanding shares of Greenfield Online for $17.50 per share, meaning the total transaction is valued at approximately $486 million. The software giant also secured an undisclosed buyer for Greenfield Online's Internet Survey Solutions, a Greenfield Online business since 2001 that Redmond had no interest in. Both transactions are expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2008.
The Ciao business, founded in Munich in 1999 and acquired by Greenfield Online in 2005, will end up reporting to Rajat Taneja, general manager for Worldwide Commercial Search at Microsoft. According to comScore's May 2008 report, Ciao had more than 26.5 million unique visitors per month across seven countries (ciao.co.uk, ciao-group.com, ciao.de, ciao.fr, ciao.it, ciao.es, and ciao-shopping.nl), and has so far generated more than 5 million product reviews in over 20 categories.
Source : here