Microsoft has issued a press release about its latest acquisition: aQuantive, a massive ad network. The Wall Street Journal has more:

Microsoft Corp. agreed to acquire aQuantive Inc. for $66.50 a share, in an all-cash deal valued at about $6 billion, as the software giant became the latest to buy an online advertising agency.

According to TechCrunch, aQuantive is the parent company to Avenue A | Razorfish, Atlas and DRIVEpm. Our Associate Editor, Chris Boggs, works for Avenue A | Razorfish, but was unable to comment. However, we anticipate some more information shortly.

Discussion on WebmasterWorld has already begun, with people putting this up against Google's acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

So do ya go with DoubleClick or Atlas for an ad server now? If DoubleClick was to expensive at 3.1B, how is Atlas a deal at 6B? Maybe the revenue from the agency unit makes it more financially attractive.

Additional coverage of the news is on Techmeme.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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