Fast Search & Transfer has paid $23 million to acquire Convera RetrievalWare, the government search technology division developed by search rival Convera. In an interesting development, which signals a consolidation of technology, although not the number of vendors, Norway's Fast takes over what many to consider the most significant part of Convera, but Convera remains standing and has licensed a web advertising technology from Fast.

By consuming "selected assets of the Convera Corporation" Fast is aiming at the lucrative government market. John M Lervik, CEO of Fast said the acquisition "will enable us to deepen our relationships in the government sector".

To calm the nerves of information and IT professionals signed up to Convera RetrievalWare Fast promised to provide global support for the application and its users.

At the same time as selling off its family silver, Convera announced that it has licensed Fast Ad Momentum a private label application that enables online publishers to provide contextual (search based) advertising.