Microsoft Buys Rapt, Gears Up To Be Online Ad Presence

Microsoft continues to prepare for its planned acquisition of Yahoo and a generally increased web presence, now buying Rapt, makers of ad management software. This news comes hot on the tail of Google's Ad Manager announcement. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions that declare ad revenue as the latest battle ground for internet heavy weights.

Microsoft already offers a program called Atlas Publisher Suite that has ad management and ad marketplace components. Adding Rapt will bring this suite online and add to the overall functionality of it. Rapt CEO Tom Chavez has this to say:

“The opportunity to join forces with Microsoft and to see our technology flourish inside a much larger platform was too compelling to pass up…We’re confident that, with Microsoft, we can continually improve publisher results and aggressively grow our combined client base that already includes over half of the top 25 U.S. publishers.”

Microsoft has been slowly girding its virtual loins to compete with Google for the last few months. Back in May it acquired aQuantive, a large ad network. Interestingly, until the hostile bid for Yahoo, aQuantitive was considered by many to be Microsoft's largest acquisition. A successful Yahoo buyout might change that statistic. Last October it acquired Jellyfish, a large shopping and consumer goods oriented network with natural ad placement potential. It also acquired YaData, a customer behavior tracking tool for online ad placement.

Taking a look at the series of purchases Microsoft has made in the last year and coupling that with it's hostile bid for Yahoo, it is easy to see that the giant wants a place online as a major presence. not only that, it is obviously poising itself to compete directly against Google (it has also made some online health purchases and other acquisitions that blatantly target the Google empire). What this means in the short term is that Yahoo can kiss goodbye any hopes of shaking Microsoft off their tail by stalling and hoping for rescue. Microsoft means business, and Yahoo is their shortcut to making their long range goals happen.

Edit to fix broken link.