Speculation is growing that Microsoft is getting ready to relaunch AdECN, an ad exchange company it acquired two years ago that has been rarely mentioned since. Now, however, it is apparently set to re-emerge, jazzed up with enhanced real-time bidding (RTB) functionality.
The buzz about the company's makeover was kicked off with a formal statement from AdECN that referred to a vague timeline - along with hints about the platform's potential go-to-market strategy.
"AdECN has been running a pilot of its federated, real-time bidding technology within Microsoft for the past several months and will be rolling that product out to a select group of participants in the coming months," it said.
AdECN also tipped its hand last November when the exchange invited ad networks that buy and sell online advertising to join the pilot. Then, AdECN likened the system to the New York Stock Exchange model, where AdECN acts as a neutral auction house that automates the buying and selling of online display advertising.
More Details about RTB
More recently Jed Nahum, director of Business Integration for AdECN who led Microsoft's acquisition of the firm, went into additional details in an interview with AdExchanger.
"When the exchange is called on for an ad, the system takes the call and replicates it to all members - hence the name 'federated,' Nahum explained. "The ad call from the federated system looks just like any ad call our participants normally get using their own ad servers, and it passes user information to the them in exactly the form that they’re used to seeing it."
Nahum went on to explain that the member then uses its normal valuation process for the impression and returns an ad and a bid for the exact impression. If the participant has real-time bidding, the bid passed back to AdECN will have been determined at the moment of the impression. "AdECN takes that bid along with all other bids and shows the ad with the highest valuation for that specific impression," he added.
The RTB functionality in AdECN - at least as it is understood to be - appears to be catching the imagination of some observers. "Real-time bidding - or RTB as the kids call it — is all the buzz in the industry lately, so it will be exciting to see a company as big as the 'soft get into the field," Adotas writes. "RTB allows specific pieces of inventory to be negotiated and bought at lightning speed."
Potential for Big Inventory
Attention is also gathering around the relaunch because it is a Microsoft endeavor - which means major players will be participating.
AllThingsD blog reports AdECN will be coming out of the gate with a lot of intriguing inventory. "It will sell space on Microsoft's giant MSN network, as well as inventory on sites the company represents, like Facebook, Digg and News Corp.'s Fox Sports."
