Microsoft Corp is after our business when we go banking with its Intuit Inc acquisition: now it wants to make money out of us when we are on the road. It has acquired the assets of Ashford, Kent-based, NextBase Ltd, maker of personal computer-based mapping and route-planning software, for an undisclosed sum. NextBase has about 40 staff in Ashford, Seattle and Paris, all of whom are expected to find jobs with Microsoft. NextBase, which last year had a turnover of $10m, said the sell-out to the Redmond, Washington company will increase the level of research and development it can devote to its suite of products, which are currently market leaders; Microsoft says it plans to incorporate the Automap, AutoRoute and MapBase products into the Microsoft Home family in January, targeting at home users as well as upgrading the products. NextBase has wooed mainly business users.