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Mar. 14, 2008

Earlier today, Microsoft said it plans to acquire Rapt Inc., a provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers.

With its information and advisory services offerings, Rapt’s technology will become key components of the Atlas Publisher Suite, part of Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.

With the inclusion of Rapt, the Atlas Publisher Suite will allows Microsoft to provide its customers with integrated asset and inventory management, forecasting, yield and sales management, as well as ad delivery and operations.

Overall, a key product that will emerge from the marriage of Rapt’s planning capabilities and Atlas’ campaign management features is an integrated publisher sales workflow solution. This product will improve upon the existing industry offerings for publishers’ sales teams when used with Rapt’s existing pricing analytics, inventory management and business intelligence products.

Tom Chavez, founder and CEO of Rapt said "the opportunity to join forces with Microsoft and to see our technology flourish inside a much larger platform was too compelling to pass up. We’re very confident that we can improve publisher results and increase our combined client base that already includes over half of the top twenty-five U.S. publishers."

Brian McAndrews, senior v.p. of the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft said "online publishers have a complex array of needs, and they require more attentive and sophisticated partners to help them solve these challenges."

McAndrews added "with this acquisition, we are positioned to help publishers succeed on all fronts. Our end-to-end advertising solution will include workflow tools, ad package and delivery, turnkey distribution, content partnerships, yield management and overall optimization.”

Rapt Inc. offers the advertising industry advanced yield management solutions. Rapt helps small and medium size businesses realize full value from their media assets through a unique combination of technology, services and market insight.

Rapt’s technology enables media companies to better price, predict, and provision advertising assets. Rapt’s advertising services and solutions help drive best-practice yield strategy and operations. Rapt’s client base includes:

CNET Networks

Dow Jones & Company

Expedia

Fox Interactive Media

Microsoft

MTV Networks

Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions helps provide advertising platforms and tools for Internet advertisers and eCommerce marketers, agencies and publishers. Its mission is to make buying and selling advertising media simpler, smarter and more cost-effective across the Microsoft network of properties.

Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions include Microsoft adCenter, Atlas, Drive-PM, Massive Inc. and ScreenTonic. Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions span search, display and emerging media including mobile, gaming, video on demand and IPTV.

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Source: M.R.K. Inc.