Microsoft Corp. has completed its acquisition of aQuantive Inc. that began this past May and has createdáAdvertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.
This new business group will be responsible for building Microsoft’s monetization engine for the advertiser and publisher community. The APS team will assume responsibility for building and marketing all ad platforms, including Atlas, DRIVEpm, MSNDR and Microsoft AdCenter, and emerging media types such as in-game and mobile ads and the agency arm Avenue A | Razorfish.
The APS group will be run by Brian McAndrews, CEO of aQuantive, who will report directly to Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division. The leadership team reporting to Johnson includes Yusuf Mehdi, who will take on the newly formed role in PSD of senior vice president of strategic partnerships and Mike Galgon, an aQuantive co-founder, has been named chief advertising strategist and will report to McAndrews.
Microsoft’s other recent advertising-related acquisitions, including Massive Inc. and ScreenTonic, will continue to report to Cory Van Arsdale as part of the Emerging Media Group within APS. The newly formed Emerging Media Group will report to Karl Siebrecht, president of Atlas. The Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions sales force will continue to be a part of the Online Services Group.
AQuantive’s employees will remain in its downtown Seattle offices.
Upon close of Microsoft’s acquisition of AdECN, CEO Bill Urschel and his team will report to Alex Gounares, corporate vice president, adCenter and Commerce, part of Satya Nadella’s Search and Advertising Platform group. AdECN will maintain its offices near Santa Barbara, CA.
