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Private company

Powerset

American search engine company

Powerset was an American company based in San Francisco, California, that, in 2006, was developing a natural language search engine for the Internet. On July 1, 2008, Powerset was acquired by Microsoft for an estimated $100 million (~$143 million in 2024). Powerset was working on building a natural language search engine that could find targeted answers to user questions (as opposed to keyword based search).2 It was founded by Barney Pell.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2005Founded1

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Powerset was an American company based in San Francisco, California, that, in 2006, was developing a natural language search engine for the Internet. On July 1, 2008, Powerset was acquired by Microsoft for an estimated $100 million (~$143 million in 2024).2

Corporate structure

Powerset is part of a group headed by Microsoft. 191 entities, 29 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries listed in Exhibit 21 of annual reports filed with the SEC; subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Founded by Barney Pell in 2005, in San Francisco.1

Leadership

Who has led Powerset, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2005Founded Founded in San Francisco1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2