On March 14, Microsoft acquired an additional Web-advertising vendor,
Office 2007 Pro Key, Rapt.It;s distinct: The Redmondians are developing out their advertising portfolio through acquisitions.Microsoft was thwarted in its try to obtain (after which block-Google;s acquisition of) DoubleClick. And it;s still unsure regardless of whether Microsoft will pull off its acquisition of Yahoo,
Office Professional 2007, which would be the grand-daddy of not only all advertising-specific acquisitions,
Windows 7 Key, but all Microsoft acquisitions in general. (Yes, Microsoft and Yahoo allegedly are speaking, sans lawyers. The real Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo could nevertheless face a long and rocky street forward.)Inside the interim, Microsoft has managed to buy quite a few other area of interest advertising-related gamers over the past couple of years,
Microsoft Office 2010 Home And Business, which includes:2008: Rapt — marketing yield-management technology for digital publishers
2008: YaData — online marketing targeting technology
2007: Multimap — location-based services
2007: aQuantive — marketing platform,
Purchase Windows 7,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 platformMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quoted late last year as saying he expected Microsoft to purchase about 20 companies a year for the next five several 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.