Founder Brian McAndrews Acquisition date 2007 | Founded 1997 Parent organization Microsoft Corporation | |
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Website www.aquantive.com (offline) Headquarters Seattle, Washington, United States Subsidiaries Razorfish, Atlas Solutions, DRIVE Performance Solutions | ||
Microsoft buys aquantive creates online ad group
aQuantive, Inc. was the parent company of a group of three digital marketing service and technology companies: Avenue A/Razorfish, Atlas Solutions, and DRIVE Performance Solutions. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company was founded in 1997. According to Advertising Age magazine, in 2005 it ranked 14th by revenue among advertising agencies worldwide.
On May 18, 2007, Microsoft announced that it would acquire the company for US $6 billion, the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history until its 2011 purchase of Skype. The acquisition closed on August 10, 2007. aQuantive became part of Microsoft's newly created Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) Group.
On July 2, 2012, Microsoft announced that it would take a $6.2 billion writedown, mostly related to the 2007 acquisition of aQuantive.