It’s a rumor that has been floating around for some time but Microsoft and Facebook have announced today that Facebook will purchase the Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft.
As with all of these transactions, a purchase price was not announced. Facebook said that Atlas, which is based in Seattle, will stay in that area. Additionally, Facebook will be injecting resources and capital into the company to service to help it expand its capabilities.
Atlas was part of Microsoft"s acquisition of aQuantive, which the company bought for a massive $6.3 billion back in 2007. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced it would take an almost equally massive one time charge of $6.2 billion to write down that buyout.
Microsoft and Facebook have become close buddies over the years with Facebook using Bing in a few parts of the site and Bing integrates Facebook information into its search results.
Earlier this year, Microsoft sold 650 software patents to Facebook for $550 million, after Microsoft bought those patents from AOL.
Source: Facebook