14 DAY TRIAL // If Google thought that it's already the king of the online advertising market and it remains the same for a long period of time, it was wrong. Because beside the main rivals Microsoft and Yahoo, AOL is now cooking a new advertising platform that might compete with the ones owned by the Mountain View giant. The folks from TechCrunch wrote today that AOL will acquired Tacoda, a New York company that can support the firm's efforts to improve the advertising solutions. At this time, there is no official statement concerning the acquisition or any other financial term about the transaction.
"Sources said AOL is paying between $200 million and $300 million in a deal that could be announced as early as today. Tacoda, which will operate as a wholly owned AOL subsidiary, is one of several online ad firms that use "behavioral targeting" techniques to track Web surfers' habits. Through its so-called "Audience Network," Tacoda helps marketers tailor ads to individual users for such things as cars or computer equipment," the New York Post reported today.
As you know, the advertising platforms attracted major investments from the Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft which were lured into the market by the huge profits that can be recorded. For example, Google paid no less than $3.1 billion for the famous DoubleClick, a transaction that got the Mountain View company into trouble due to antitrust regulators. As a reply, Yahoo acquired the remaining shares of Right Media, an advertising firm able to improve its offering and made it more competitive for the search giant.
Microsoft was the craziest firm when it comes to acquisitions for the advertising market because it paid $6 billion for aQuantive, the company that might represent the secret weapon in the battle against the rivals.