Microsoft paid $500 million for Danger?

Yahoo’s not the only target of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s cash-pile. The company we all love to hate has allegedly put up $500 million to acquire Sidekick-maker Danger. Gigaom’s “fairly solid sources” are pegging Microsoft’s most recent purchase at a hefty half-billion greenbacks.

Why so much? Well, it would seem that Microsoft wants to leverage their services, like Microsoft Live Search, Mail, and Messenger, in the Danger platform. The idea being that a Microsoft-backed Danger OS could be just the thing to compete against the oncoming Android flood.

Now, Microsoft’s official stance on the acquisition is that they want to gather as much expertise as they can. But, if they want to truly compete in the same space as Android, they may just use this Danger acquisition to bring a new wave of Microsoft/Danger handsets.

[Via: GigaOm]