Software giant Microsoft announced the biggest acquisition in its history by buying digital marketing firm aQuantive for $6 billion in an all-cash deal."The advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry," Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft said in a statement.The acquisition, the largest deal in the advertising industry, continues the frenzy of interest in online advertising as companies try to corner a bigger piece of this lucrative market that is expected to continue to grow, said CNET News.The acquisition, yesterday, comes a day after WPP bought 24/7 Real Media in a deal that valued the group at $649 million. Earlier, Google snapped up DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and Yahoo acquired the RightMedia advertising exchange outright for $680 million.The aQuantive acquisition enables Microsoft to strengthen relationships with advertisers, agencies and publishers by enhancing the company's advertising platforms and services beyond its current capabilities to serve MSN."It is a big bet on advertising monetisation for the long-term growth of the company and this is a significant step forward," president of Microsoft's platform and services division Kevin Johnson said in a statement.He said the online advertising market would be worth $40 billion this year and was growing at 20% a year.The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of Microsoft's fiscal year 2008.
