Microsoft Delves Into Advertising

Digital marketing company aQuantive has been bought by Microsoft for $6 billion, it has been announced.

The move signifies Microsoft's first foray in to the world of internet advertising, a sector that has recently been attracting the attentions of most of the major internet companies. Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive is the company's largest to date.

The chief executive of aQuantive, Brian McAndrews, will run Microsoft's newly devised Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. The new body will be responsible for all of Microsoft's ad operations. At a recent meeting for financial analysis PC World reports that Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "We are going to be an advertising company."

"We need to embrace that. We need to be world class at that." Earlier this year Microsoft's rival Google acquired the internet advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. U.S. regulators are still investigating the acquisition amidst possible privacy and antitrust violations.

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Online Ad Revenues Climb

Online ad revenue saw a year-on-year growth of 26 percent in the first quarter of 2007, according to a recently released survey.

During the first quarter of this year alone, the industry racked up $4.9 billion in revenue, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers reported. In recent months there has been a scramble by many of the largest Internet companies to acquire online ad outfits. IAB president and chief executive Randall Rothenberg said: "The continued growth of online ad revenues clearly illustrates marketers' increased chttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifomfort with the extraordinary vitality and accountability of this medium."

In April Google beat out Microsoft and Yahoo! by paying $3.1 billion for the Internet ad company DoubleClick. Founded in 1995, DoubleClick is responsible for over half the advertising on the Internet, but has been criticized for its use of spyware. In May, Microsoft moved into the sector by buying advertising outfit aQuantive for $6 billion.

"Search Advertising is the major type of online advertising. Search ads can be based on the keywords that are typed, contextual advertising or behavioral targeting," states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the industries most popular comparative shopping website for digital products and services. "The costs of keywords can vary greatly depending on the demand for the term, the nature of the target market and the placement of the ad."

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Microsoft To Acquire Aquantive

Software giant Microsoft is to acquire the digital marketing company Aquantive for $6 billion, it has been announced. The move is part of a wider effort from the company to expand its presence in the lucrative world of online advertising.

After the acquisition, Microsoft will acquire Seattle-based Aquantive's Atlas Media Console and Drive PM solutions for advertisers and publishers. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "The advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry.

"Today's announcement represents the next step in the evolution of our ad network." Microsoft will also gain control of Aquantive's own interactive advertisement agency, Avenue A Razorfish. In April, Google won the race to acquire the ubiquitous internet advertiser Doubleclick, paying $3.1 billion for the company.

The New York-based Doubleclick was founded in 1995 by Kevin O'Connor and Dwight Merriman.