Earlier this year when Google were snapping up FeedBurner, Microsoft were laying the foundations to buy up aQuantive.

Yesterday they did just that, closing the deal that see’s the software giant splash a grand total of US$6bn (six billion dollars folks). The aQuantive board have resigned, the stock as been delisted from NASDAQ and Microsoft are now in complete control. Figures touted around put online advertising in the US$40bn bracket so paying $6bn to take a big step forward in terms of online advertising is a slight bit overwhelming – especially considering that Google picked up Doubleclick for half that amount.

Seriously though… six billion quid? Should certainly help with their behavioural advertising approach…