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Microsoft’s online plan: Spend, spend, spend

Time: 07:13 EST/12:13 GMT | News Source: | Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum

If you think Microsoft’s been spending like crazy in the online space, you ain’t seen nothing yet. (And that’s not counting when or if Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar bid for Yahoo’s search business is ever consummated.)

Microsoft missed earnings projections when it announced its Q4 FY 2008 numbers on July 17. To some company watchers’ surprise, it wasn’t Windows Vista — which Microsoft claims to have sold 180 million licenses now — that was to blame. Instead, yet again, it was Microsoft’s Online Systems Business (OSB), more than anything else, that dragged down the numbers.

However, Microsoft officials told Wall Street analysts not to expect Microsoft to change its OSB investing-for-the-longhaul strategy any time soon. Microsoft is planning to step up its online spending around driving usage of Live Search and growing its advertiser base for its adCenter online-ad platform.