Facebook Buys Atlas Advertiser Suite From Microsoft

4:29 PM PST 2/28/2013 by Paul Bond

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

The software giant paid about $6.3 billion for the platform in 2007.

Facebook paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft, the company said Thursday.

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Atlas is in part a measurement technology to help determine which ads should be displayed in front of which Internet surfers, and it had been part of Microsoft's disastrous purchase of aQuantive.

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Microsoft paid about $6.3 billion for aQuantive in 2007. Last year, it took a writedown of $6.2 billion for that acquisition. Some have speculated that Facebook purchased Atlas for about $100 million.

"Many marketers that advertise on Facebook today use Atlas, and Atlas has been an approved partner for measurement since June," Facebook said in announcing the acquisition. "Today's agreement brings us closer together in a way that benefits both Facebook and Atlas' agency and marketer clients."

Atlas is based in Seattle and will continue to operate from there. Its clients shouldn't see changes to the service, and Facebook said it plans to invest in the Atlas platform.