MarketingVOX: Early Monday Microsoft closed its $6 billion buyout of aQuantive, a digital marketing company that in many ways holds its own against DoubleClick, owned by Google, in the ongoing battle for online ad dominance.
aQuantive is the most recent in a string of ad platform purchases Microsoft has conducted in the past year, having acquired stock exchange-style ad firm AdECN just weeks ago.
Along a similar vein, aQuantive’s Atlas division rolled out a tool that enables publishers to sell their own online ad space.
With its new marketing arsenal, Microsoft has begun to build a new ad and publishing solutions group, according to The Globe and Mail. The group includes aQuantive’s tools as well as those of DrivePM; ScreenTonic, a mobile ad company; Massive Inc, which specializes in video game ad technology; and Microsoft’s own tools for selling search and display ads.
The firm declined to mention how long it would take to present a unified toolset to customers. And aQuantive will reportedly continue acting as an independent firm, making decisions that suit its marketers, rather than its parent company.
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