OK, so its not shocking that today the shareholders of aQuantive officially voted yes to take Microsoft’s offer. Still, Tony Bishop’s blog has an interesting analysis on the scene. That was the easy, part, he points out. The real work is Microsoft will have to integrate aQuantative while simultaneously not angering its customers-turned-competitors. He writes:
“That’s no small task considering the large and unique nature of the aQuantive deal. Apart from the normal challenges, Microsoft will need to maintain its relations with other advertising agencies that buy its online inventory, despite owning one of their competitors. And aQuantive will have to balance its work with Microsoft’s various product groups while still serving as a neutral representative of its own clients — able, for example, to put together a campaign that includes advertising spending on Google and Yahoo.”
Microsoft doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation when it comes to “co-oppetition” to use that old 1990’s term. Considering the company is just rising out from the muck of its anti-trust troubles, can Microsoft be trusted to fairly deal with customers using aQuantative to book ads on sites that compete with MSN?
