Microsoft Freak : Microsoft to acquire aQuantive

Microsoft to acquire aQuantive

Microsoft is allset to acquire online advertising company aQuantive for $6 billion in cash, a move that will help the software giant carve out some serious territory in the online advertising battleground.

It’s the company’s biggest acquisition bid ever. Microsoft offered $66.50 per share for the company for an 85 percent premium over aQuantive’s Thursday closing price of $35.87. The offer highlights Microsoft’s willingness to open its wallet further in order to catch Google, Yahoo and AOL.

According to Microsoft, “Microsoft’s advertising assets and aQuantive’s complementary expertise in advertising tools, sales, support and syndication are assets that together will deliver safer solutions and increased value to agencies, advertisers and publishers”.

aQuantive has seen significant growth in the decade since its inception, evolving to include three main brands: Atlas, which makes the Media Console advertising platform; DRIVEpm, which provides ad services that match advertiser campaigns with publisher inventory; and Avenue A | Razorfish, which, as one of the largest online ad agencies in the world, provides advertisers digital marketing consultation along with media planning and buying.

Microsoft said it will use the aQuantive assets to create next-generation advertising systems, including cross media planning, video-on-demand and IPTV.

Microsoft expects to close the deal in the first half of its fiscal year 2008. aQuantive, a long-time customer and supplier of Microsoft, will continue to operate from its Seattle headquarters as part of Microsoft’s Online Services Business.

Should the deal go through without a hitch, Microsoft will have a powerful weapon to wield in conjunction with its AdCenter platform.

With the company, Microsoft will assume a leadership role in what Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said is a $40 billion online ad market expected to grow 20 percent each year through 2010.

Still, Microsoft officials insisted acquiring aQuantive for its three big brands and 2,600 employees is kosher because it’s complementary.

Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel Brad Smith, who has publicly complained that a Google-DoubleClick merger would reduce competition by giving Google 80 percent of the market for serving ads to third-party Web publishers, addressed the competitive ramifications on the call.

Source: internetnews.com