When Microsoft purchased aQuantive back in 2007 it had great hopes of becoming an industry leader for the internet advertising platform but unfortunately that is not how things have turned out. What began as an act of great hope for the company has turned into a $6 billion mistake. Microsoft has written off the acquisition at $6.2 billion loss it announced this week. In the past quarter alone Microsoft lost almost $500 million in its online services division. Microsoft released a press release stating that “while the aQuantive acquisition continues to provide tools for Microsoft’s online advertising efforts, the acquisition did not accelerate growth to the degree anticipated.” a statement that many feel is a gross understatement. The acquisition isn’t the only cause for Microsoft’s advertising struggles, their search engine Bing still has been unable to catch up to the success enjoined by Google only obtaining about 15% of the search engine market.
