aQuantive, Inc. was the parent company of a group of three

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development d ...

service and technology companies:

Avenue A/Razorfish Razorfish, a part of Publicis Groupe, is an interactive agency. Razorfish provides services including web development, media planning and buying, technology and innovation, emerging media, analytics, mobile, advertising, creative, social influ ...

Atlas Solutions Atlas Solutions is a subsidiary of Meta Platforms, acquired from Microsoft in February, 2013,Savitz, Eric"Facebook Reportedly To Buy Microsoft's Atlas Solutions Unit"''Forbes'' February 27, 2015. Retrieved on January 2, 2016. which provides servic ...

, and DRIVE Performance Solutions. Based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, the company was founded in 1997. According to ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in m ...

'' magazine, in 2005 it ranked 14th by revenue among

advertising agencies An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

worldwide. On May 18, 2007,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

announced that it would acquire the company for US$6 billion, the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history until its 2011 purchase of

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

. The acquisition closed on August 10, 2007. aQuantive became part of Microsoft's newly created Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) Group. On July 2, 2012, Microsoft announced that it would take a $6.2 billion

writedown A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

, mostly related to the 2007 acquisition of aQuantive.

References

External links

* (archive) 2007 mergers and acquisitions Companies established in 1997 Microsoft acquisitions {{US-company-stub

See also

References

External links