Ballmer admits Microsoft has hard search fight

26th September 2008

Microsoft needs to significantly disrupt the search market to catch sector leader Google, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has said.

Despite this, the company is more capable of doing this than any other organisation, he claimed at a recent Churchill Club event in California.

Mr Ballmer said that Microsoft intends to invest $8.5 billion (£4.6 billion) in development and research in the current financial year, with more to be spent on acquisitions, the AFP reports.

The company has acquired natural language technology company Powerset and price comparison site Ciao in the last few months.

It also tried to buy Yahoo!, which failed shortly after Jerry Yang's company formed an ad alliance with Google.

Mr Ballmer remarked: "If anybody is going to provide any real competition in search and advertising to Google, I think it is going to be Microsoft."

The technology industry as a whole will also do well in fighting the impact of the US economic crisis, he added.