Microsoft Corp. will take a $6.2 billion hit, mainly caused by its purchase of aQuantive, an online advertising business that turned out to be a total flop. The charge will cut a hole in the company’s fourth quarter, which ended in June, with analysts predicting its earnings to round out to about $5.3 billion. Microsoft has been criticized recently for some of its acquisitions, including arguably paying way too much for aQuantive five years ago, making a high-profile yet ultimately unsuccessful bid for Yahoo in 2008, and its 2011 Skype undertaking, seen has a huge risk.
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