aQuantive Math Adds Up for Microsoft

It's billed as a response to Google(GOOG Quote). But Microsoft's(MSFT Quote) latest acquisition has as much to do with its own aging software business as it does with its rival.

On Friday, Microsoft said it would acquire aQuantive(AQNT Quote) for $6 billion -- a massive 85% premium to where shares of the interactive ad agency had traded the day before. Many commentators scoffed at the price tag, seeing it as an admission by the software giant that it had failed to crack the Internet.

But if it succeeds, the bet will do more than just give Microsoft another shot at the Web. It will also help Microsoft evade the inevitable slowing in its bread-and-butter businesses. ...