LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> does not expect to make acquisitions to help the company challenge Google Inc's <GOOG.O> dominance in the Internet search market, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told Reuters on Monday.

"No, I wouldn't expect it," he said when asked whether acquisitions would be part of the strategy. Microsoft recently agreed a search partnership with Yahoo! Inc <YHOO.O> after a long and unsuccessful struggle to buy the company.

"You'll continue to see us work hard and invest in the marketing and the like, and of course we're trying to get the Yahoo deal through regulatory," he said after a lecture to Britain's CBI business lobby organization.

Ballmer also reiterated his opinion that global economic growth was likely to return slowly and at lower levels.

"Things have come down. I see them staying down and slowly growing," he said in answer to a question from the audience, adding, however: "I feel wholly unqualified with just a couple of years of undergraduate economics to answer the question."

Ballmer said information technology would play a key role in driving efficiency and productivity gains to help the world out of recession, while a joint study with industry research firm IDC predicted the industry would drive the creation of 5.8 million new jobs worldwide by the end of 2013.

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Posted at 12:24PM Oct 05, 2009 by Lou Wallace in Inform  |  Comments[0]