Microsoft to delve into TV advertising

SQUARING UP TO arch nemesis Google, Mightysoft today announced that it was snapping up Navic Networks, which helps advertisers to place ads on television.

Navic, which counts about 110 workers and is based in Waltham, sells a service to advertisers which directs advertising spots at couch potatoes hooked on particular types of TV programmes.

It will be the Vole’s first foray into the world of TV advertising, and a direct challenge to Internet ad giant Google, which has already started staking out the TV market.

After plans to buy out Yahoo fell through, the Vole has been frantically looking for ways to beef up its Internet unit, which lost the mega firm mega bucks last quarter. Navic has been bunged straight into the loss-making volish Internet service division, and Microsoft is probably now hoping that the little ad firm’s sales will be able to pick up some of last quarter’s loss and turn it into profit.

Mightysoft is currently ranked third in the table of Internet advertisers, with Google, last year, hoarding 28 per cent of the $21.1 billion pie of US online ad spending, Yahoo snatching a further 16 per cent, and the Vole left with the crumbs of 6.7 per cent.

In the past, Navic had worked with the likes of Time Warner, Cable, Cox and Charter, Allstate, Ford Motors, Wal-Mart and Nissan. The company had also managed to raise about $43 million in funding from Venture capitalists including Pilot House Ventures Group, Pequot Private Equity, Highland Capital Partners and Himalaya Capital.

The terms of today’s deal with the vole were not disclosed. µ