Software Notebook: Microsoft goes on a shopping spree (Seattle PI)

A timely snapshot

Microsoft failed in its big bid to buy Yahoo, but it still found plenty of companies to spend its money on during the past year.

The Redmond company paid out a total of $8.8 billion on 21 acquisitions in its recently completed fiscal year, according to a regulatory filing last week. Most of the money went toward Microsoft's $5.9 billion purchase of aQuantive, the Seattle-based digital advertising company.

Note: I'm going to be catching up for a while -- I spent the last couple weeks in Australia and was mostly off-line...

Software Notebook: Microsoft goes on a shopping spree