Microsoft - Back in the Game?
Posted on October 25th, 2007 by ryan
As you’ve probably heard or read elsewhere, Microsoft announced yesterday that they’ve purchased a very small stake in Social Networking juggernaut Facebook. The deal, which gives exclusive rights to Facebook’s third party advertising platform, came days after Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, denied his company’s intention to purchase Facebook, which is now valued at 15 billion USD.
The move comes as a surprise to many industry insiders who, like me, figured Google would have secured any advertising deal with Facebook.
What does Microsoft have in store for Facebook’s user community, and will this move impact the site’s impressive 2007 growth? One can only wonder…
Filed under: Industry News, Miscellaneous, Strategy, Technology
I guess I was in the minority who expected Microsoft to get the deal - since they already had the rights to serve US ads on the site.
I see this as a brilliant move on Microsoft’s part because they can now leverage two recent acquisitions:
AdECN - an auction based exchange for display advertising
aQuantive - a display advertising network
With the recent purchases in the display advertising space (Google’s purchase of DoubleClick still has not been approved as yet), this gives Microsoft a leg up in display advertising both inside and outside the US.
Smart move