Microsoft Adds Web Broker to Online Ad Strategy

WPP Group, Ogilvy & Mather, and ... Microsoft?(MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) Among the biggest names in advertising, you may eventually be able to add the Redmond, Wash. software giant to the list.

At its annual analyst day, the company announced Thursday it had acquired tiny startup AdECN, yet another piece of the digital advertising empire that Microsoft is building.

AdECN, an ad exchange network founded in 2003, has 37 network members. Kevin Johnnson, president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services division, characterized AdECN as comparable to the Nasdaq in its neutrality as a locus for advertisers and publishers to agree on price.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal is a key component of Microsoft's strategy to develop a comprehensive search and display advertising platform. Existing components of Microsoft's advertising strategy include the three segments of aQuantive(AQNT Quote - Cramer on AQNT - Stock Picks), an acquisition that is expected to close in August: the Atlas online advertising software platform; DRIVEpm, which connects advertisers with publishers' inventory; and AvenueA/Razorfish, a full-service advertising agency.

The company has also launched its Ad Center as a way to get a start in online advertising, creating an auction capability where advertisers could bid on search terms. The company plans to further that effort by delivering content advertising for the same search terms, beginning in the first quarter of 2008, Johnson said.