Microsoft rules out more buys

MICROSOFT’S CEO said the company will not seek to make a spate of other internet acquisitions in the wake of its failed bid for Yahoo.

Speculation has emerged that Microsoft could try to buy Facebook, in which it already owns a small stake, the AOL division of Time Warner and a slew of smaller concerns, the Financial Times reported in its online edition. “People don’t understand what they’re talking about,” chief executive Steve Ballmer said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“At the end of the day, this is about the ad platform. This is not about just any one of the applications,” he said.

Microsoft abandoned a $US47.5 billion ($50 billion) offer to buy Yahoo last month, but had more recently discussed a deal to take a 16 per cent in Yahoo and buy its search business for $US9 billion as part of its effort to establish a stronger foothold in online advertising.

Reuters