:

Ad Exchange AdECN Acquired By Microsoft

By AdExchanger

Friday, July 27th, 2007 – 11:22 pm

SHARE:

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.

Next In Investment

Yahoo! Buys Right Media Ad Exchange

Must Read

Monopoly Man looks on at the DOJ vs. Google ad tech antitrust trial (comic).

2025: The Year Google Lost In Court And Won Anyway

From afar, it looks like Google had a rough year in antitrust court. But zoom in a bit and it becomes clear that the past year went about as well as Google could have hoped for.

Why 2025 Marked The End Of The Data Clean Room Era

A few years ago, “data clean rooms” were all the ad tech trades could talk about. Fast-forward to 2026, and maybe advertisers don’t need to know what a data clean room is after all.

The AI Search Reckoning Is Dismantling Open Web Traffic – And Publishers May Never Recover

Publishers have been losing 20%, 30% and in some cases even as much as 90% of their traffic and revenue over the past year due to the rise of zero-click AI search.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters

No Waiting for May – CES Is Where The TV Upfront Season Starts

If any single event can be considered the jumping-off point for TV upfronts, it’s the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES), which kicks off this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Comic: This Is Our Year

Comic: This Is Our Year

It’s been 15 years since this comic first ran in January 2011, and there’s something both quaint and timeless about it. Here’s to more (and more) transparency in 2026, and happy New Year!

From AI To SPO: The Top 10 AdExchanger Guest Columns Of 2025

The generative AI trend generated endless hot takes this year, but the ad industry also had plenty to say about growing competition between DSPs and SSPs. Here are AdExchanger’s top 10 most popular guest columns of 2025 and why they resonated.