Facebook Acquires Atlas Ad Platform From Microsoft

Microsoft and Facebook today announced that Facebook is acquiring the Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft. Microsoft bought Atlas as part of the aQuantive acquisition back in 2006. The deal was terrible for Microsoft and it wrote off the entire $6.2 billion value last year.

Facebook on Atlas,

Many marketers that advertise on Facebook today use Atlas, and Atlas has been an approved partner for measurement since June. Today’s agreement brings us closer together in a way that benefits both Facebook and Atlas’ agency and marketer clients. Atlas clients should not see any change to the service they receive today, and we will continue to innovate and invest in the Atlas platform.

We plan to improve Atlas’ capabilities by investing in scaling its back-end measurement systems and enhancing its current suite of advertiser tools on desktop and mobile. We will also work to improve the user interface and functionality with the goal of making Atlas the most effective, intuitive, and powerful ad serving, management and measurement platform in the industry. Ultimately, Atlas’s powerful platform, combined with Nielsen and Datalogix, will help advertisers close the loop and compare their Facebook campaigns to the rest of their ad spend across the web on desktop and mobile.

Microsoft on Atlas,

Earlier today, Facebook and Microsoft announced a definitive agreement in which Facebook has agreed to acquire the Atlas Advertiser suite. This agreement will strengthen our existing partnership and also includes a long-term strategic commercial relationship. Having been deeply involved in this deal since day one, I can say with confidence that we are quite pleased with this outcome and are excited to continue building a deeper partnership between our two companies.

This agreement is strategically important for a number of reasons.

First, Facebook is committed to ensuring the success of Atlas partners, customers and team members.

Second, as a result of the commercial relationship, we will be building on an already strong partnership with Facebook for the benefit of both companies and their respective long-term visions.

Third and perhaps most important, this deal allows us to dedicate even more energy and resources to those areas of our business that are core to the future direction of Microsoft Advertising.  Namely, creating compelling, beautiful and relevant experiences on our first-party owned & operated assets like Windows 8 (Ads in Apps), Skype, Xbox/Kinect, Windows Phone, Bing and MSN; and delivering amazing user-centric advertising experiences to consumers and marketers alike.

Source: Microsoft, Facebook