Microsoft Corp. has announced that it has completed settlement of its tender offer for Fast Search & Transfer ASA, a provider of enterprise search solutions. FAST will operate as a Microsoft subsidiary, with a dedicated enterprise search research and development centre in Oslo, Norway, and offices throughout the world.

"With our companies combined, we’ll be uniquely able to offer customers what they’ve been telling us they want most — a strategy for meeting everything from their basic to most complex enterprise search needs," said Jeff Teper, corporate vice president for the Office Business Platform at Microsoft. "I'm incredibly excited to have the talented team from FAST joining us."

John Markus Lervik will transition from his role as FAST CEO to become Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Enterprise Search, reporting to Teper. Under Lervik’s leadership, the group’s charter will include the development of a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise search offerings, including Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express, search for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and FAST ESP, and future delivery of a single enterprise search platform.

"From the moment I started talking to Microsoft about the prospect of bringing our talent and technology together, I realised what a powerful impact we could have on the way companies use search to drive new revenue streams and improve productivity," Lervik said. "Together we’ll deliver better technologies that make enterprise search a ubiquitous tool, central to how people find and use information."