$ cat ./records/microsoft-buys-aquantive-for-6-3-billion-later-a-near-total-write-2007.txt
Microsoft buys aQuantive for $6.3 billion — later a near-total write-off
[RECORD.TXT] · cat --full
In 2007 Microsoft made what was then its largest-ever acquisition, buying digital-advertising firm aQuantive for about $6.3 billion in an all-cash deal meant to help it compete with Google in online ads. The bet largely failed: Microsoft's online-advertising business kept losing money, and in 2012 the company wrote down roughly $6.2 billion of the acquisition's value — nearly the entire purchase price — one of the biggest write-offs in its history. The episode underscored how hard it was for Microsoft to crack Google's dominance in search advertising.
Source: https://www.geekwire.com/2012/writedown-microsoft-squandered-62b-purchase-ad-giant-aquantive/
Free forever · No ads · Solo developer
If this was worth a read, help make the next entry possible.
Every entry in this archive was researched, verified, and written by one person — for free. No corporate funding. No ad revenue. Just a developer who believes verified history should be accessible to everyone. Your donation directly funds new entries.
Crypto accepted · No subscription required
← Previous
Microsoft releases the troubled Windows Vista
Next →
Gates Foundation Awards $5.3 Million to Rainforest Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture Certification
[CROSS_REFERENCES] · grep --category='Business'
Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates becomes 'much poorer' in 2026 as he accelerates giving and slips down the wealth rankings
Bill Gates's net worth fell sharply in 2026 as he accelerated his giving, with trackers noting he had become 'much poorer' — Forbes pegged him around $104 billion and 19th on its global ranking, down from his long reign near the top — as he transfers the bulk of his fortune to the Gates Foundation ahead of its 2045 closure. Gates has said he wants to give away about 99% of his wealth and does not want to be remembered as having 'died rich.' Differences between wealth trackers' methodologies, particularly how charitable pledges are counted, produced a wide range of estimates.
February 2026
Gates told Nadella his $1 billion OpenAI bet would 'burn'; Microsoft now holds a ~27% stake
Satya Nadella revealed that Bill Gates had warned him his early $1 billion bet on OpenAI was a mistake, telling the Microsoft CEO 'yeah, you're going to burn this billion dollars.' The gamble instead became one of the most consequential in tech: a 2025 OpenAI restructuring left Microsoft holding roughly a 27% stake valued around $135 billion, alongside a deal for OpenAI to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of Azure services. The anecdote, surfacing in early 2026, highlighted Gates's continued skepticism even as Microsoft's AI bet paid off.
[ARCHIVE_FUNDING] · INDEPENDENT · NO ADS
One developer. >300 verified entries. Zero ads. Forever free.
No sponsors, no paywall, no algorithm. If this archive has been useful to you, reader support is what keeps it running.