Allen is on top of things this morning. That is why I consider it “Broken News” vs “Breaking News”. He is reporting that Microsoft has bought Aquantive for $6 Billion. From the call notes he posted it appears now that Microsoft is going to give it a go in challenging Google for the online supreme command spot.
Now the only thing I will say is that Yahoo is not sitting by idle on the sidelines. I think that this is like a 3 way dance, and the big dogs are done circling each other. Yahoo is not a slouch, they just have questionable leadership at times. Microsoft this morning now has shown that it won’t sit around being a chump.
From the release: Combining aQuantive’s technologies and services with Microsoft’s portfolio will provide value for the industry’s key constituencies as follows:
* Advertisers and ad agencies will benefit from a world-class media planning, buying and campaign management solution to drive maximum ROI and optimize their reach to audiences across the increasingly fragmented, interactive media landscape.
* Media owners/publishers will gain access to best-in-class inventory optimization and monetization solutions across a full suite of rich media, video and targeting capabilities.
* The broader advertising ecosystem will benefit from the leading interactive advertising agency, Avenue A | Razorfish, continuing to serve its impressive client roster, while also embedding the voice of the marketer into Microsoft’s next generation advertising solutions and services.
Technically Speaking, this is a big, big deal. $6 Billion makes the earlier funding deal I talked about seem like chump change.
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