Microsoft Buys aQuantive

Not to be outdone by Google’s purchase of Doubleclick, Microsoft decided to step up the competition and move more aggressively into the on-line advertising space with the purchase of aQuantive.

In the interest of full disclosure, aQuantive is a good customer of ours. The analysts are questioning the amount paid by Microsoft ($6 Billion for a company with a prior day market cap of $2.8 Billion) and only time will tell if it was a good move. But I for one, think aQuantive is a pretty amazing company. They will teach Microsoft an awful lot about on-line advertising.

Provided they can mesh cultures (I view aQuantive more as the dark haired Mac guy in the Apple commercial), I think this is an excellent move for Microsoft.

IMHO, the combined company will still not out-Google Google simply by merging talent and effort, but it certainly makes it a much closer race to be sure.

So who’s gonna buy Valueclick?