Microsoft announced a $1.2 billion cash offer to acquire Fast Search and Transfer (FAST), a sizable player in the enterprise search market. The offer price is a 42 percent premium on FAST’s share price in Norway. The board of directors at FAST has recommended that shareholders approve the offer and if all goes well the transaction should be completed in the second-quarter of 2008.

FAST should make for an interesting integration into Sharepoint Server. The product should also weigh heavily on the minds of decision makers in Microsoft shops that may have previously been looking at Google’s enterprise search offering.