Microsoft's moving business model ...

Om Malik wrote on GigaOM:

Microsoft’s willingness to pay big dollars and bid aggressively for aQuantive ($66 a share versus mid-$30s trading price) shows that the Barons of Redmond truly believe that advertising will play a big role in its future. How that eventually plays out - remains to be seen.

As an aside, as Microsoft moves away from its more predictable software (OS and productivity suite) based business models into new categories - games, subscriptions and now advertising - do you think some of the predictability in their business model is going to be … to put mildly… be replaced by volatility?

Greg Sterling has more thoughts about the deal after his chat with Joe Doran, General Manager, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.