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Others may be interested in acquiring Omniture Inc., the Utah-based company that provides software to help businesses monitor their Web traffic and improve their online marketing.
At least that is the suggestion of some Wall Street analysts.
JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens told his clients in a note released shortly after Adobe announced it agreed to pay $1.8 billion for Omniture that Microsoft may view the Utah company as a strategic asset in its battle against Google for search-engine market share.
"Microsoft has a renewed focus on its search platform with its recent Bing [search-engine] launch and Yahoo partnership," Walravens wrote. "Omniture's technology could be very helpful to Microsoft's effort in this area."
Moreover, Google has its own analytics solution, while Microsoft folded its effort last year and now uses Omniture internally. And with more than $25 billion in cash, Microsoft has the balance sheet to make sizable acquisitions for cash, he noted.
A Microsoft spokesman said the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.
But Joe Davis, who heads Omniture rival Coremetrics in San Mateo, Calif., agreed that Microsoft would be a logical buyer -- given the uncertainty about what Adobe intends to do with the Utah company's technology if it is successful with the acquisition.
Adobe expressed interested in using Omniture's technology in its own graphic-design
Davis said if Adobe's focus is going to be on using Omniture's software for its own products, the question then is: What projects will Omniture dump so it can integrate its software into Adobe's?
Davis, however, said Microsoft already may have had a chance to make an offer for Omniture but turned it down.
"The talk has been that the deal was shopped around for awhile."
In a conference call with analysts and the news media earlier this week -- where Adobe's $21.50 offer per share for each Omniture share was discussed -- Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen declined to comment on whether there were other bids.
But analysts Sandeep Aggarwal and Stan Velikov of Collins Stewart in San Francisco indicated in a note to clients they also believe there is "some likelihood of another competitive bid" for Omniture.
"In our view, Microsoft, Cisco and a few IT consulting firms could be other potential acquirers for [Omniture]," they wrote. "Cisco has made comments in the past in terms of their search for companies engaged in online ad campaign tools and Web analytics and [Omniture] fitted those requirements nicely in our view."
Regardless, Adobe's bid isn't going to go unchallenged.
A proposed class-action lawsuit also was filed late this week in Provo's 4th District Court against Omniture Chief Executive Joshua James and its board of directors. It alleges that those company insiders breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders.
The complaint argues the merger agreement has the practical effect of requiring the holders of only 45 percent of Omniture's publicly held shares to vote in favor of the merger with Adobe.
Also, it alleges that Omniture and its executives have agreed to "onerous" deal-protection devices in the merger agreement that seeks to make Adobe's takeover offer a foregone conclusion.
Citing company policy, Omniture executives declined to comment.
Omniture's shares, which are quoted on the Nasdaq system, closed Friday at $21.90, unchanged for the day.
