Bangalore: A company that has been rolling cash for years- that’s Microsoft. Microsoft is one among a handful of companies that aren’t ashamed of spending money on acquiring other firms to gain advantage over their rivals. But the fact still remains that not all their acquisitions worked out well. Some were the best ever, like the Hotmail, and some were worst, like Danger.

So here’s a list featuring top 10 takeovers by Microsoft that cemented their spot as the best in the tech world.

#10. Hotmail:

Takeover cost: $500 Million

Year: 1997

One of the oldest and most successful web mail providers, Hotmail was bought by Microsoft in the year 1997. It only took one year for Hotmail to grab attention from the tech giants. Since then Hotmail has simply changed the entire landscape of mail services. Microsoft considers Hotmail as their best acquisition, as they have been continuously improving mail services with updates on speed and storage. In 2007 Microsoft changed Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail Services and declared its famous integration with Exchange Active Sync.