[IxDA Discuss] Microsoft Pays $6B for Online Ad Company

[Chris Bernard]

So, we've publically stated that we want to keep all the businesses in the acquisition intact. More design DNA is sorely needed in Microsoft and in many ways the businesses that have been acquired are complimentary to Microsoft.

Culture is going to be a challenge but MS has some pretty long term and deep relationships with AA|RF. This varies from office to office but if you're AA|RF you might have got a bit of a bump if you were holding some stock options or just stock and our health benefits are top notch.

I have no inside knowledge on this (and of course if I did I wouldn't be able to share it here) but if I was a betting man I would suspect you're going to see AA|RF get to operate with the same autonomy it does now. The integration will really be on the ad network side and capabilities of the Atlas and Drive PM business units.

I blogged a bit about this in more detail if folks want to explore this further.

http://chrisbernard.blogs.com/design_thinking_digest/2007/05/microsoft_and_a.html

Chris Bernard
Microsoft
User Experience Evangelist
chris.bernard at microsoft.com
312.925.4095

Blog: www.designthinkingdigest.com
Design: www.microsoft.com/design
Tools: www.microsoft.com/expression

"The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed." William Gibson


-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Challis Hodge
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 9:41 PM
To: discuss at ixda.org
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsoft Pays $6B for Online Ad Company

My take is that MSFT bought aQuntaive in response to the the other
acquisitions announced this week. The cash offer was clearly designed to
close the deal without any question or debate. I can't imagine MSFT cares
much about the AARF piece of the acquisition. Any bidders?

-c

On 5/18/07, Nancy Broden <nancy.broden at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> My experience is of Razorfish SF from 2002 - 2005. I survived the
> acquisition by SBI and the subsequent acquisition by Avenue A
> (aQuantive). IMHO Razorfish wasn't the same after SBI, and definitely
> not after Avenue A. My friends and colleagues who stuck it through
> the "dark years" feel that it is a good place to work now, but I
> seriously doubt it feels like the old Razorfish.
>
> - Nancy
>
> nancy.broden at gmail.com
>
> On May 18, 2007, at 4:22 PM, Dave wrote:
>
> > I'd love to hear people's thoughts, especially from the fishies among
> > us about this deal.
> > I was speaking w/ a microsofty today about this and he is convinced
> > this is the new beginning of advertising. My take on it was more
> > personal. Razorfish has been a major organ (can't quite say it is the
> > heart) of the NYC/Silicon Alley UX scene for close to 10 years if not
> > 10 years. It is hard to imagine that this organization is falling
> > under
> > the umbrella of Microsoft. Will it still maintain it's brand? And
> > worse, will it still keep its NYC edge and connections? Will the type
> > of people who decide to become Razorfish employees stay at a company
> > like MS? What will this do to the NYC UX market and community?
> >
> > Anyway, I find this very interesting.
> >
> > - dave
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