GigaOM Pro

When Microsoft acquired Massive just a few years ago, they were in the midst of ramping up on their advertising technology portfolio in their battle with Google. While their eye-popping $6 billion purchase of aQuantive less than a year later was their “AOL/Time Warner” purchase in terms of the ridiculous premium paid, the Massive buy was perhaps also an equally silly move given the fact the company owned such a big part of what was already needed to make in-game ads happen. Now, with their recent success with in-game ads with the recent hit 1 vs. 100, the company realizes that they can likely make a go of it themselves in a market where the technology isn’t half as important as the business relationships.