A few months after acquiring advertising giant aQuantive for $6 billion, Microsoft has purchased yet another digital ad company, YaData, for around $25 million.
Start-up YaData Ltd is sells solutions that allow the customers to discover unique customer segments; in other words, it produces tools to unearth hidden, underlying trends.
YaData's technology will allow advertisers to target their ads better, in more efficient and engaging ways, says the Israel-based Globes-online article which broke the news.
YaData will integrate Microsoft Research and Development in Israel and the start-up's solutions will join Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group.
"The purchase of YaData brings the Israeli R&D center into the field of online advertising, which is undoubtedly one of Microsoft's most strategic fields," said Moshe Lichtman, president of the Microsoft Israel R&D Center. "This is a great example of how Israeli technology has considerable value that is contributing to our most important areas of development."