Facebook rumored to be interested in purchasing Microsoft’s ad platform

Facebook is currently in talks to purchase Microsoft’s ad platform, Atlas, according to a report from All Things D. Anonymous sources claim that Facebook has been checking out the service, which could be used as a competitor to Google’s DoubleClick and AdSense cash cow. In theory, Facebook could use the Atlas service to display its own ads on third-party sites, much in the way Google does now, giving Facebook yet another revenue stream. It’s been rumored that Facebook has considered building its own technology to do this, but it may be easier to just buy out an existing service than to start from scratch. Atlas is powered by aQuantive’s technology, the same aQuantive that Microsoft purchased in 2007 and then wrote off earlier this year to the tune of $6.2 billion. ATD’s sources say that Facebook would pay far less for Atlas than Microsoft did, but the agreement could involve more complex advertising.