Microsoft Corp announced that it has agreed to purchase AdECN, Inc, a Santa Barbara, California based advertising exchange platform company, making it part of Microsoft’s Online Services Business. This purchase makes it Microsoft's second purchase of digital advertising companies. The previous being its purchase of aQuantive, Inc.

Speaking about the acquisition was Kevin Johnson, Microsoft's President of Platforms and Services Division who said, "Both Microsoft and AdECN have a deep commitment to creating the technologies and platforms that enable advertisers and publishers to maximize their ROI in the digital marketplace. We believe the addition of AdECN to the Microsoft portfolio is a perfect fit and will create more efficiency for the industry by forming a more robust marketplace between advertisers and publishers, aggregating more supply and demand. This is good for the whole advertising industry.”

About AdECN, Inc it was “founded in 2003 by William Urschel, AdECN brings both key technologies and significant domain expertise to the Microsoft team. Advertisers and publishers will benefit from this deal in the following ways:

• Advertisers will get access to more inventory, enabling more efficient matching of their requirements which can help increase ROI.
• Publishers will be able to increase yield – earn more money per page view – due to the higher volume of available inventory.
• Both groups will benefit from the exchange’s neutrality and transparency, enabling them to make more informed decisions about their bid and ask decisions.

William Urschel, AdECN CEO commented, “Joining forces with Microsoft will provide the capital and resources to enable AdECN to scale the exchange at a much faster pace, making it more attractive to the advertising networks and other traffic aggregators looking to better serve their advertisers and publishers. All of us here are thrilled to join a team that shares our commitment to neutrality for the exchange and also believes that creating liquidity and intelligently matching supply and demand will be two of the most important roles for a technology provider to play in this rapidly growing and evolving market.”

Microsoft Corp will complete the acquisition by the 1st half of 2008 financial year. As for AdECN who has 30 employees will still run its business from its original Santa Barbara headquarters.

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