Microsoft to acquiring an advertisement exchange company, i.e. AdECN, this is their third acquisition-in-progress after the acquisition of Screentonic and aQuantive for the past two months, three advertising platforms acquisition in a row could have made Microsoft a new weapon and a strong position in its war with rival Google. Well, as usual there is no financial terms disclosed by Microsoft and AdECN yet. However, I think Google and Yahoo as well feel the heat right now, especially Google since one of their publishers Digg has announced the changed of ads partner two days ago. What attracted Microsoft was the technology owned by AdECN, its technology works like a stock exchange or a hub, in technology sense, where the advertising networks can buy and sell display advertisement in a real-time auction marketplace. Thus, this exchange enabled AdECN a platform that gather a larger pool of supply and demand for the advertising clients. Meanwhile, Microsoft is gearing up to become an even bigger player in the Web advertising market by not only this acquisition, but also the setting up of an organization, i.e. Internet Services Research Center, an applied research organization dedicated to accelerating innovations in search and advertisement technologies and delivering them more rapidly to advertisers and customers.

“Both Microsoft and AdECN have a deep commitment to creating the technologies and platforms that enable advertisers and publishers to maximize their ROI in the digital marketplace,” said Kevin Johnson, president, Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft. “We believe the addition of AdECN to the Microsoft portfolio is a perfect fit and will create more efficiency for the industry by forming a more robust marketplace between advertisers and publishers, aggregating more supply and demand. This is good for the whole advertising industry.” Said in a press release (PDF).

AdECN is a startup founded in year 2003 and currently its headquarter is based in Santa Barbara, California.