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Advertising - Monday, March 17, 2008

MSFT Buys Online Ad Optimization's Rapt

Microsoft has paid an undisclosed amount for San Francisco-based Rapt. Rapt sells an inventory management solution (OLAP based operational analytics and business intelligence suite) for online media publishers and ad networks. What that means is that a large Web publisher has fluctuating demand as ad campaigns come and go and traffic rises and falls. Rapt's software helps them to understand and predict those changes. In practice, the company delivers a lot of consulting to help publishers to use their software.

Founded in 1998, Rapt has raised around $55M from Accel Partners and Levensohn Venture Partners .

For Microsoft, the deal beefs up its Atlas Publisher Suite, which it acquired through its buyout of Aquanitive and which goes head to head with Google's Doubleclick Dart server. Getting Rapt will also help Microsoft sharpen its hooks into some very large publishers that use Rapt including CNET, Dow Jones, Expedia, Fox Interactive Media, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, The New York Times, Reuters, USA TODAY, and Yahoo!.

As a side-note, in 2006, Accel and Levensohn reached an out-of-court settlement with two of Rapt's co-founders, who had alleged "fraud and breach of fiduciary duty."

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