Viacom, EDGAR Sign Online Partnerships

Viacom will use Microsoft’s online advertising technology and will provide content to Microsoft as part of a five-year partnership signed in Dec. 2007. The deal is a win for the advertising platform that Microsoft gained in its US$6 billion acquisition of aQuantive in mid-2007, and a takeaway from competitor DoubleClick (which is being acquired by Google). Viacom’s choice may have been influenced by the fact that Viacom is suing Google for alleged copyright infringement on YouTube, which Google owns. However, terms of the deal were not disclosed, making it impossible for outsiders to calculate its actual return for either company.

Separately, EDGAR, a provider of financial information, will become part of Microsoft’s advertising network and will provide content for MSN Money.

Win for Microsoft Ad Platform

Viacom joins Digg and Facebook as high-profile companies that have signed online advertising deals with Microsoft since mid-2006. In those previous deals, Microsoft gained the right to be the exclusive reseller of advertising on these partners’ sites, which let Microsoft expand the inventory it sells to advertisers.