Microsoft Corp said yesterday that they will be shedding their business as it slims down its money losing online operations. AOL will acquire Microsoft Display Ad Business and Uber will acquire part of Microsoft Bing Mapping Assets.
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What will Microsoft gain after handing over Microsoft Display Ad Business to AOL?
According to the agreement, AOL will acquire Microsoft display ad business, video and mobile advertising that appears on Outlook.com, Skype, MSN, Xbox and other products by Microsoft in the US, Canada, Brazil, Japan and five European countries. This move will give AOL access to some of the web’s most popular destinations while taking Microsoft largely out of the display ad business. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine in turn will power the search results and search advertising on AOL websites.
Bob Lord, AOL president said “We believe this is a scale play to become another alternative to our competitors. A lot of this deal is frankly getting to the younger demo, and not just programmatic platform offerings but also programmatic content offerings. That’s what they’re asking for: not just a campaign platform but a content platform.”
Uber acquiring part of Microsoft’s Bing Mapping Assets to strengthen their technology
Uber will acquire part of Microsoft’s Bing Mapping Assets that works on map data analysis and image collection. According to the sources, Uber will offer jobs to around 100 Microsoft employees who work on image collection and data analysis. However, financial terms of the deal between Microsoft and Uber were not disclosed by them.
Uber has strengthened their technology by acquiring Microsoft’s Bing Mapping Assets. However, Uber is already using a combination of map services from Apple Inc, Google Inc and China’s Baidu. The company will continue to work with its partners and also invest in its own technology, said by the company spokeswoman.
Microsoft has decided that now it will not collect the data and imagery for Bing Maps itself, and will rather rely on partners. Microsoft is already getting much of its map data from Nokia. Driving directions and information about traffic and road conditions will be continued by Bing Maps.
Microsoft is shedding the business, including Microsoft Display Ad Business and Microsoft’s Bing Mapping Assets as CEO Satya Nadella is working to focus mainly on three key areas: business productivity, cloud platforms and personal computing. Nadella has been taking over cloud and mobile software makers, paring units not central to his strategy and streamlining the workforce, since he became the CEO last year.