Microsoft plans to spend at least $2.5 billion a year for the foreseeable future to compete with Google because the opportunity in online advertising is too big to ignore, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said yesterday. "The amount of economic value we have the opportunity to create by pursuing this world in which everything goes digital is at least 40, 50, 60 percent more than our economic value today," Ballmer said at a meeting with analysts. Microsoft, owner of the No. 3 U.S. search engine, is struggling to take market share from leader Google and ... (more)