Shareholders of aQuantive Inc. have approved Microsoft Corp.'s plan to purchase the company, effectively closing the biggest deal in the software company's history.

According to the Form 8-K aQuantive filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week, aQuantive's shareholders will receive US$66.50 in cash for each share of the company's common stock. All told, Microsoft is paying about $6 billion for the company, a full-service digital marketing, advertising and creative agency. Microsoft announced its intent to purchase aQuantive in May.

Now that the deal has cleared shareholder approval, Microsoft has the daunting task of proving its investment in the Seattle-based company is worth it. Microsoft paid about an 85 percent premium on aQuantive shares, which closed at $35.87 the day before the deal was announced, and the company itself made only $442.2 million for its entire 2006 fiscal year. Critics fear the cost of aQuantive will not outweigh the benefits for Microsoft.

Microsoft's purchase of aQuantive is largely seen as a competitive response to rival Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, a company Microsoft was rumored to have lost in a bidding war with the search giant. AQuantive also had suitors other than Microsoft, and at the time the deal was announced Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell acknowledged that this was the reason for the high price.

On a conference call to announce Microsoft's quarterly financials last month, Liddell said that company does not expect to see significant impact on its earnings or operating income from the aQuantive deal in its 2008 fiscal year, which began July 1.

IDG News Service

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