Cramer: Microsoft Overpaid Because It Had To

This column was originally published on RealMoney on May 18 at 1:40 p.m. EDT. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers. For more information about subscribing to RealMoney, please click here.

Sure, the aQuantive(AQNT Quote - Cramer on AQNT - Stock Picks) deal is nutty. Sure, it's an overpay. Sure, it makes Microsoft(MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) look stupid.

But Microsoft needed to do something. It needed to shut everyone else out. What we don't know is how much anyone else was willing to pay. And we don't know how desperate Microsoft is to leapfrog on the Web, where it seems to fall behind by the day.

What's baffling, of course, is that aQuantive is a company that was just a simple roll-up of cats and dogs that no one wanted for a very long time. I can actually remember chatting with these companies when I started TheStreet.com and marveling how overvalued they were originally. Then they went to nothing.

Then they went to $6 billion.

(I think Anthony Noto at Goldman is right, that now Microsoft can buy Yahoo!(YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) and own it all except for Google(GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks)! If it can pay $6 billion for aQuantive, it will pay $50 billion for Yahoo!.)

I would love to tell you this is all nuts, but this ad space has gotten so unbelievably hot that I bet there was someone willing to pay $4 billion or $5 billion out there.

And Microsoft had cash.

	Do you agree with Jim Cramer that Microsoft needs aQuantive badly enough to justify overpaying for it? Answer Here

No one laughed at Rupert Murdoch's $60 bid for Dow Jones(DJ Quote - Cramer on DJ - Stock Picks). He needs to make something happen for Fox Business.

Microsoft needed to make something happen for MSN.

So it overpaid. Period, end of story.

Oh, and I am just glad we nailed it!