kuntau.net

News spread fast, here is some news site that talk about that.

aQuantive: Who are these guys? by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- The instant messages and emails about Microsoft’s $6 billion purchase of aQuantive go something like this: “Whoa that’s a big deal.” “I’d hate to be short aQuantive.” “If Microsoft was going to spend that much why didn’t it just buy Doubleclick?” “Who is aQuantive and where’d they come from?” Most of the messages coalesce around that last question. The deal [...]

Microsoft buys aQuantive for $6 billion by CNNMoney -- The deal is an indication of Microsoft's efforts to catch up in the growing online advertising space, and is just the latest deal in the sector, following recent moves by rivals Yahoo and Google. "This deal takes our advertising business to a new level," said Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson during a call with analysts Friday. "This allows us to take a bigger piece of that $40 billion pie that is still growing."

Microsoft Pays $6 billion for aQuantive: Massive Ad Network Consolidation Is Occuring by techcrunch --Breaking: Microsoft is acquiring advertising network aQuantive, the parent company to Avenue A |  Razorfish, Atlas and DRIVEpm, for roughly $6 billion in an all-cash transaction, the company said this morning.

aQuantive is a public company (AQNT) and had a market cap of just $2.8 billion as of yesterday. The acquisition price of $6 billion is a roughly 2x premium on yesterday’s closing price, which is a reflection of the fact that this were competing bidders (see notes below). The acquisition comes after recent big acquisitions by Google and Yahoo in this space. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April. Later that same month, Yahoo acquired competitor RightMedia for $680 million. Just yesterday, WPP Group acquired yet another company in this space, 24/7 Real Media, for $649 million.