Building brick by brick
A couple of recent announcements by Microsoft appear to make a clear statement that it can achieve its online ambitions without acquiring even part of Yahoo!.
At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival on Tuesday, Microsoft (MS) announced it intended to open a Search Technology Centre (STC) in Europe before mid-2009, similar to the Beijing STC it opened in October 2005.
Despite a 68 percent share of internet users in Europe, “we’re not yet where we’d like to be in search in this critical geography,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the MS Platforms and Services Division. “Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Centre as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments.”
MS had previously announced a drive to expand the DRIVEpm media network, currently operating in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, to include The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
The European STC will operate as a hub for smaller centres in several countries. Given the sweetheart deal MS enjoys with the UK government, England seems a likely location. France (Quaero) and Germany (Theseus) already have government-funded STCs.
TV advertising initiative
Today, MS announced the acquisition of Navic Networks, a private company based in Massachusetts, which has proprietary technology for addressable advertising and interactive television applications installed on over 35 million digital set-top boxes in North America.
The acquisition is a big first step into off-line media. “Wherever media is consumed in a digital format on a digital device, we will have relevant ad-technology platforms,” said Scott Ferris, GM of MS’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.
“Viewers across North America are engaging with relevant advertising and interacting with their TVs in ways never before possible,” said Navic CEO Chet Kanojia. “We look forward to extending our technology into a vast array of new markets and software solutions.”
