In Pictures: Microsoft’s 10 biggest buys

Microsoft yesterday announced that it is spending $1.2 billion to acquire Yammer. The company has been rolling in cash for years, and hasn’t been shy about spending it to snap up other companies it thought could augment its portfolio or gain it an advantage in fledgling technologies. Sometimes it worked out, as with Hotmail; sometimes it didn’t, as with the aptly named Danger, the handset company whose technology spawned the ill-fated Kin phone. Here is a review of Microsoft’s top 10 such acquisitions as measured by dollar value.