Microsoft Says Hello to Ciao, Buys European Shopping Site

Microsoft has agreed to acquire a Connecticut-based research company called Greenfield Online , which runs both a website called Ciao for European comparison shoppers and an online survey system that helps businesses conduct market research. The cash tender offer to buy out all of Greenfield's outstanding shares amounts to roughly $486 million, about $60 million more than public equity firm Quadrangle recently offered to pay for Greenfield. Microsoft has already found an unnamed party to buy Greenfield's surveys division from it, leaving the Redmond, WA-based company with the remaining Ciao subsidiary.