Ad Exchange AdECN Acquired By Microsoft

Feeling it couldn’t be left out of the advertising exchange party, Microsoft, acquired tiny AdECN for what some suggest is in the $50-75 million range.

In the wake of previous advertising exchange platform purchases such as Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick which included its exchange and Yahoo!’s $700 million purchase of RightMedia and RMX, Microsoft evidently felt that it needed to have its own ad exchange tools and AD ECN fit the bill.

In the Microsoft press release, they state, “AdECN brings both key technologies and significant domain expertise to the Microsoft team.”

According to Marketwatch, Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson has said that AD ECN will become part of Microsoft’s growing Ad Center platform.

The tiny, Santa Barbara-based, ad exchange company only has 30 employees and with a rumored purchase price around $70 million, that’s over $2 million for each employee. (OK, we know it doesn’t work like that but it’s fun to do the math.)

No word yet on how the executives of AD ECN will be distributed within management of Microsoft’s advertising initiatives.

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