In Pictures: Microsoft’s 10 biggest buys

With Yammer the latest, here’s a look back at Microsoft’s high-takes investments

Hotmail was just a year old when Microsoft bought it in 1997 as one of the earliest and most successful Web mail providers. It has grown and changed over the intervening 15 years, morphing into Windows Live Hotmail in 2007, a completely overhauled version of the service. The upgrades were aimed at improving speed and greater storage. Over time the service has been integrated with other Microsoft products such as Exchange Active Sync.

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