March 14th, 2008
A look back at Microsoft's advertising-related acquisitions
On March 14, Microsoft acquired another Web-advertising vendor, Rapt.
It’s clear: The Redmondians are building out their advertising portfolio through acquisitions.
Microsoft was thwarted in its attempt to buy (and then block-Google’s acquisition of) DoubleClick. And it’s still uncertain whether Microsoft will pull off its acquisition of Yahoo, which would be the grand-daddy of not just all advertising-specific acquisitions, but all Microsoft acquisitions in general. (Yes, Microsoft and Yahoo allegedly are talking, sans lawyers. The actual Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo could still face a long and rocky road ahead.)
In the interim, Microsoft has managed to buy a number of other niche advertising-related players over the past couple of years, including:
2008: Rapt — advertising yield-management technology for digital publishers
2008: YaData — online advertising targeting technology
2007: Multimap — location-based services
2007: aQuantive — advertising platform,tools and services
2007: adECN — advertising-exchange platform
2007: ScreenTonic — mobile ad-serving platform
2007: TellMe — voice and mobile-search services
2006: Massive — in-game advertising platform
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted late last year as saying he expected Microsoft to buy about 20 companies a year for the next five years, with most being in the $50 million to $1 billion range. I wonder if Microsoft’s $44 billion bid for Yahoo will end up reducing that total.
Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 20 years. Don't miss a single post. Subscribe via Email or
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