I just got off the phone with Joe Doran, General Manager, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. He and I spoke about a range of topics in my allotted 15 minutes.
I posted the main bits of my interview at the bottom of my SEL post. The most interesting part was when Doran said, “We’re going through a period of rapid consolidation. We believe there will be two major ad delivery platforms at most and this [acquisition] demonstrates our commitment to be there.”
By “platforms,” he meant companies. I then asked asked who the other company was (assuming MSFT is one), he said that it was Google. Hmmm . . . does that mean that Yahoo!, still the largest site on the Internet, will gradually lose more and more share in his mind? Or does it mean Microsoft intends to acquire or merge with Yahoo! at some point?
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Take Om Malik’s poll on the online ad network competition.
Screenwerk 