Ashkan Karbasfrooshan

aQuantive/Microsoft Clears Anti-Trust Hurdle, AQNT Gains $1B

Alan, Thanks for the clarification. Though technically, AQNT rose from $5.03B to $5.19B, the headline was an editorial addition (not mine). My post had little with the gain based on market cap, solely based on price change movement.

Google-DoubleClick Deal Makes aQuantive More Attractive

Jeff, all fantastic pts. All of this boils down to opinion, one's vantage point, experiences...

I worked, for example, as VP of Sales for a midtier online publisher who has worked with DCLK, AQNT, GOOG in many capacities, but ultimately, my experiences shape my view and my gut... I'd be curious to know your background, mainly because people in the industry tend to have the best ideas on where the industry might go.

Just one thing:

"Maybe I'm being dense here but I don't understand why MTV would leave."

Viacom is suing GOOG's YouTube for $1B. VIA just chose YHOO for a revenue deal. While CBS is working with GOOG, VIA is not... so I am guesstimating that to spite GOO, Redstone might yank that acct.

Google-DoubleClick Deal Makes aQuantive More Attractive

Jeff, all good points.

Re: "This serves all advertisers: those who value self-service scale and those who need full blown agency services."

The one area where Google might hit a snag is that most agencies view Google as a threat... Google is hoping that F500 advertisers and ad agencies turn to it, but most media planners and buyers want to shift their money across many media suppliers while relying on a centralized technology supplier.

DCLK or AQNT's Atlas is the tech supplier... advertisers choose on or the other granted, but on the media end of things, I do not think that advertisers will welcome Google as a trusted partner.

Agencies get 5% planning, 5% buying and 5% creative, Google effectively wants to take away the first 2 5% fees.

Then there's the publisher flight risk, MTV for example uses DCLK. Will they do that for much longer?

Lastly, DCLK's inventory does not in any way give advertisers access to the best, premium real estate.

Publishers control that directly... and since they will be more reluctant to use DCLK's software (and give up valuable data to Goog) and advertisers will be reluctant to trust Goog, I see a lot of risk here.

This was a defensive move against MSFT camouflaged as a synergistic one.

Of course, long term, what will pan out will be a combination of the things you say, I say, others say... but for now, that's my take!

Thanks.