Microsoft and Viacom Become Ad, Content Partners in $500M Deal
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | December 19, 2007 | Share This
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Microsoft this morning announced a five-year, $500 million partnership with Viacom, the media conglomerate that counts MTV and Paramount among its TV and film properties. Per the agreement, Viacom will replace its current ad server DoubleClick (which Google is still fighting to acquire) with Atlas, a product that became Microsoft’s in the aQuantive acquisition this May, and give Microsoft the exclusive right to sell Viacom’s remnant display ads.
Microsoft also gets non-exclusive licensing rights to include content from Viacom companies on MSN and in Xbox 360 games, and the software giant has also promised buy advertising on Viacom’s network and, writes the AP, “cooperate on promotions for award shows on Viacom’s MTV Networks and BET Networks.”
The deal is being touted as a boost for Microsoft in its competition with Yahoo and Google, but Om Malik notes the real winner is Viacom and big media companies:
Viacom doesn’t have to spend anything and at the same time it is getting advertising dollars and more distribution for their content. I get a feeling that, going forward, this is going to become a template deal for all large media companies with content assets. For them it’s a green light to pillage Microsoft’s overflowing coffers.
Neither company is outlining how exactly the $500 million breaks down, but the deal aligns with Microsoft’s desire to increase its advertising presence, and cost is no object. The company recently also paid a whopping $240 million for a very small stake in Facebook.
Topics: Advertising: Distribution, Advertising: Online, Microsoft, Online Video |
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