14 DAY TRIAL // With Yahoo not keen on rushing to the altar alongside Microsoft, the Redmond Company has changed its mind too as if saying a firm no to a potential marriage. Microsoft has announced on May 18, 2007, a $6 billion bet on aQuantive designed to increase its presence on the online advertising market, and to get it closer to Google. And in the wake of the aQuantive acquisition, rumors of a potential alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo have been put to rest.
The Redmond Company is not clearly denying a Yahoo acquisition, but Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft senior vice president and chief advertising strategist, stated that the company's advertising portfolio is almost complete, lacking just a few small pieces.
"Well, Yahoo has a great business. I mean, they have great audience assets. Kudos to them in terms of the users and reach that they've got. ... We work with them really collaboratively on (instant-messaging interoperability), which has helped us both grow our network, so that type of collaboration has been good. But no, I think from where we are today, we think we have all of the pieces. There are some other small pieces that we're in the process of getting to, as well, organically or otherwise, but we think we've got all the pieces we need to move forward," Mehdi explained.
The main reason why Microsoft would eye Yahoo is for the Internet giant's Panama online-ad platform. However, the $6 billion aQuantive comes with a complete package. Atlas, DRIVEpm and Avenue A | Razorfish have all passed under the Microsoft umbrella, giving the Redmond Company a complete advertising toolset and publisher platform, together with ROI maximization services and with a top international interactive ad agency.
aQuantive is only the latest in Microsoft's long list of acquisitions on the advertising market. With Massive, TellMe, MedStory, ScreenTonic and MotionBridge, the Redmond Company is slowly building an ad base with access to games, search and mobile environments. And it will all be centered on Microsoft's own adCenter.