SearchEngineUpdate with Vanessa Zamora - 08-25-2008 Part I
Abstract: Avenue A Deal Could Give WPP, Microsoft What They Really Want
Vanessa Zamora
Video Content Producer, SearchEngineWorld
10:33 pm on Aug. 25, 2008 (utc 0)
Transcript
Monday August 25, 2008
Avenue A Deal Could Give WPP, Microsoft What They Really Want
Microsoft gained control of digital advertising agency Avenue A/Razorfish as part of its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive last August in a move many believe was made primarily to keep up with similar strategic moves made by Yahoo, which acquired Right Media for $680 million and Google, which acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. However, now it appears that although Avenue A Razorfish contributes roughly 60 percent to aQuantive’s total revenues, Microsoft is disinterested in the agency side, and could forced to take a serious loss, in terms of what was initially paid, should it decide to go ahead with a sale. According to Ad Age, a possible resolution is in the works. Microsoft has reportedly reopened talks to sell the aQuantive unit to ad holding company WPP, which holds an edge over other holding companies because it has assets Microsoft might be interested in, namely the ad-serving technology of 24/7 Real Media. Ad Age reports that according to people familiar with the matter, a deal could unfold as such: Microsoft unloads Avenue A/Razorfish in exchange for a WPP package that includes 24/7's Open AdStream publisher ad-serving tool plus cash. While Avenue A's price would be higher than most agency deals, very few interactive agencies with that kind of scale are available for acquisition, thus leading to a seemingly win-win situation for both parties.
10:33 pm on Aug. 25, 2008 (utc 0)