What happened to aQuantive?

On May 18, 2007, Microsoft announced that it would acquire the company for US$6 billion, the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history until its 2011 purchase of Skype. The acquisition closed on August 10, 2007. aQuantive became part of Microsoft’s newly created Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) Group.

Why did Microsoft buy aQuantive?

The aQuantive acquisition enables Microsoft to strengthen relationships with advertisers, agencies and publishers by enhancing the Company’s world-class advertising platforms and services beyond its current capabilities to serve MSN.

When did Microsoft acquire aQuantive?

2007
Microsoft spent $6.3 billion in cash buying online display advertising company aQuantive in 2007. On Monday, the company wrote off almost the entire value of the acquisition, taking a $6.2 billion writedown.

How much did Microsoft Write Off the aQuantive acquisition?

On Monday, the company wrote off almost the entire value of the acquisition, taking a $6.2 billion writedown. Microsoft’s online advertising business has remained wildly unprofitable in the five years since it bought aQuantive. In Microsoft’s most recent quarter, the company said its online services division lost nearly half a billion dollars.

What was the largest write off in Microsoft’s history?

Today’s write-off was Microsoft’s largest ever, exceeding by 23% the $6.2 billion charge it took in 2012 to account for the failure of its 2007 purchase of online marketing and advertising company aQuantive. “Give Nadella a lot of credit for stepping up here,” said Gold, referring to the CEO’s decision to write down the deal and move on.

How did Microsoft recover from the aQuantive crash?

In the years following the crash, aQuantive mounted a full recovery. It launched a tech division called Atlas and in 2004 acquired creative web consultancy Razorfish, a deal that effectively doubled the size of the firm. By the time Microsoft bought it, aQuantive had $700 million in annual revenues.

What was the cost of the aQuantive acquisition?

At the time, it was Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever — a title later claimed by the $8.5 billion Skype deal and then LinkedIn at $26 billion. After absorbing aQuantive, Microsoft moved on to another strategic challenge, spending heavily in an effort to make Bing a viable competitor to Google’s search engine.