Microsoft Shares Fall Due To MSN Search Performance & Spend

TheStreet.com reports that Microsoft’s share fell as much as 13% today due to Microsoft’s search engine, MSN Search. Microsoft was not prepared for “the rising cost of competing with the better-positioned Net players, notably Google,” TheStreet.com reports. Bloomberg reports that Microsoft may be “investing too much at the expense of profit” in MSN Internet properties, $2.4 billion more, to be exact. TheStreet.com says that MSN Search’s search revenues were down in the first quarter and that they expect MSN Search to “lose advertising share” in the 2006 calendar year. The article also notes the recent acquisition of Ask.com’s CEO as a recent expense, that hopefully will turn a profit.