CNET News.com (http://news.com.com) announced on October 21 that the search engine giant Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) has quietly purchased the e-mail software company Stata Labs (www.statalabs.com), in what could be an investment in a coming PC search tool to rival Google and Microsoft.
San Mateo, California-based Stata Labs sells an e-mail application called Bloomba (www.statalabs.com/products/bloomba) that lets people search message text and attachments. According to a posting on Stata Lab's website notifying users of the buyout, the acquisition will provide Yahoo with exceptional technological expertise and strategic assets. Yahoo executives have said previously that the company plans to introduce a desktop search tool.
The acquisition comes only a week after Yahoo rival Google (www.google.com) unveiled new technology that allows people to search data in e-mail, Word documents and Web pages. Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) also has designs to integrate desktop, e-mail and Web search and toward that end it recently bought a small e-mail search company called Lookup.
