Microsoft and Facebook may be making yet another deal together. A new report citing unnamed sources claims that the two companies are currently in discussions that could result in Facebook buying Microsoft"s Atlas Solutions online ad platform.
AllThingsD.com reports that Atlas Solutions has in fact been up for sale by Microsoft for some time, but while a number of companies have been interested, no deals were closed. Facebook is now apparently interested in purchasing Atlas from Microsoft, as part of its plans to launch its own online ad service that could rival the dominate force in the Internet ad business, Google. Neither Microsoft nor Facebook have commented on this report.
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. It"s likely that if a deal does happen between Microsoft and Facebook, the final price for Atlas Solutions will be much lower than what Microsoft paid for it.
Earlier this year, Microsoft sold 650 software patents to Facebook for $550 million, after Microsoft bought those patents from AOL.
Source: AllThingsD.com | Image via Microsoft