The best business, career move I ever made was leaving my old company. We got that.
MSFT buys aQuantive for $6 Billion.
The best investing move ever, not selling my holdings in aQuantive yesterday. This is a true story: yesterday my holdings in AQNT crossed the 50% gain threshold, and having become more disciplined, I logged in a couple of times into my online trading account and considered selling my shares. I’ve bought, sold, bought, sold and bought this stock again many times, I’ve written its praises on this blog quite a bit. Having worked in ad sales, as a VP of sales for a publisher, I thought it was the best company in the space. Naturally when Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1B, I knew the timing would come when someone would snatch it up.
But yesterday as WPP bought 24/7 Realmedia, I thought, maybe MSFT will balk at AQNT’s valuation - $2.6B as of yesterday - and make a run for Valueclick. Or, maybe it won’t move. Last week AQNT rose $3 and I thought, maybe I should just lock in my 50% gains and move on.
Today I wake up, and AQNT is up $27! I knew it was a deal. And only MSFT could have made such a move.
Indeed, MSFT paid over 2 times yesterday’s price, naturally there were many buyers. Who else?
YHOO had bought Right Media. Google had bought AQNT. Maybe it was AOL? Maybe it was InterActive Corp.
Who cares, today I am thankful I didn’t sell, that’s all I know.
Is this deal good for MSFT? Yes, MSFT-bashers should now recognize that MSFT is definitely a strong player in online advertising. This deal will not only help AQNT in a few ways, it might also hurt in areas because not everyone will want to have their advertising “run through MSFT.” But time will tell if that will pan out because AQNT is good at what it does. Of course, the best part of the deal: AQNT and MSFT are both based in Seattle. This is a major plus but it does suggest that MSFT plans a major integration, though that remains to be seen.
Regardless it will help MSFT in two ways: MSN/Live.com just got a shot in the arm, and like Google, MSFT is not making a cut off every dollar spent - or nearly every dollar spent - in one way or another away from MSN properties.
More analysis and thoughts to come. Plenty of 2 cents online.
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