Dive Summary:
- After a long process, Microsoft is expected to announce soon a deal to sell ad-serving business Atlas to Facebook.
- Facebook has interest in Atlas to grow an advertising network outside of Facebook that allows advertisers to connect directly to Facebook, and its treasure trove of consumer data, to better measure the effectiveness of campaigns.
- The acquisition price is expected to be in the $30 to $50 million range.
From the article:
"Facebook is very focused on proving the worth of the data it sits on as well as the effectiveness of its ads. Owning an ad server would allow big advertisers and agencies to connect directly to Facebook to better measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Now, most advertisers use one of the many Facebook ads API partners, third parties that connect to Facebook's display tools and exchange.
Controlling the ad technology stack from end to end could also help Facebook eventually open up its data to advertisers in a more controlled way, without exposing it to intermediaries."
