With Google fighting antitrust probes of its AdMob acquisition plan, and Apple unveiling iPad, Microsoft is coming up behind as usual. The firm, whose own mobile advertising activities have been muted so far, is close to buying its own US platform, Millennial Media, according to sources quoted by Business Insider.
The journal believes that Microsoft has been in talks with the smaller company for a couple of months and is close to a deal. This would give it a kickstart to boost its mobile web services as Google’s own strategy remains in limbo, and as Microsoft’s own efforts gain some much needed credibility. In particular, several carriers and handset makers – even on the Google dominated Android platform – have adopted the Windows giant’s Bing search engine as their default option.
According to research group Nielsen, Millennial has a broad reach, though only in the US, addressing more than 80% of mobile internet users in the country. Its services would complement Microsoft’s existing in-house products, most of them acquired with ScreenTonic in 2007. The current high profile of mobile ad solutions may place a high price tag on Millennial, perhaps as much as $500 million – unjustifiably high, according to some analysts, who think Microsoft should spend its resources on building up ScreenTonic and building on Bing deals with partners like Verizon.
However, the report comments: “Acquiring Millennial could quickly give Microsoft broader reach across more publishers and in mobile apps on the iPhone, Android, and other platforms.” The US focus of the prey would marry well with the contacts that came along with French firm ScreenTonic, whose Stamp software targets ad delivery according to handset audio/video capabilities and screen size, plus portal formats (WAP, XHTML, video, Java, rich media) and the information sent by the portals (bearer, user information and geolocation). Microsoft started services based on the technology over two years ago, and also acquired UK-based Multimap to add the all-important location element.