aQuantive's ad management firm Atlas has acquired sell-side ad trafficker Accipiter - Atlas's initial move into ad management for publishers, directly pitting it against 24/7 Real Media and DoubleClick's DART for Publishers, writes ClickZ.

Accipiter, acquired for $30.3 million in cash, supports display advertising, rich media, RSS and in-stream audio and video units. It acquired performance-based contextual ad network BidClix in September. CEO Brian Handly will stay on as SVP at Atlas.

Accipiter's European businesses will be merged into Atlas's Europe, Middle East and Africa business. Atlas introduced pre-roll ad insertion last month, as did DoubleClick.