"Microsoft has made many acquisitions for many reasons over its history--122 to date, according to the list maintained at the Wikipedia. Almost 100 of these have been consummated in the last decade, as the company that triumphed in operating system and office productivity software has sought (often unsuccessfully) to achieve similar success in other domains. Other purchases have demonstrated pragmatic 'build versus buy' decisions, serving to add functionalities to products that needed them more quickly and efficiently than in house efforts could achieve.
"In its earlier days, Microsoft was much more likely to mimic the products of other companies rather than buy them, in part reflecting its engineering-driven culture, and in part its hardball approach to competition..."
