Microsoft Corp is close to reaching a deal to buy Massive Inc, which makes technology that inserts advertisements into video games, a member of Massive's board said on Wednesday.
The board member, Douglas Miscoll, a partner with the venture capital firm Newlight Associates, said the price was US$200 million to US$400 million, but he declined to be more specific.
He said that the deal was not yet signed and that it could yet fall through.
The deal "has not yet closed," Miscoll said, "but we think we're on track." He said his firm had around US$4 million invested in Massive.
Microsoft and Massive declined to comment. Microsoft's interest was first reported on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.
Massive acts as a kind of advertising agency for video games, placing virtual billboards, logos and other promotions for companies like Coca-Cola, 20th Century Fox and Panasonic in games made by many of the major game publishers, like THQ and Ubisoft.
The deal would be significant not just to Massive but to the overall momentum behind the idea of advertising in video games. Game publishers have begun experimenting with inserted advertising as a way to increase revenue and offset the high cost of developing games.
Advertisers, their agents and the publishers are trying to exploit Internet technology that would allow them to insert and update ads automatically in games played on PCs and game consoles that are connected to the Internet.
Thus far, most of the advertisements have appeared in online games played on PCs. Microsoft's interest in Massive could indicate that more ads for console games are on the way, said Evan Wilson, an industry analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. The new Xbox 360 console from Microsoft has a feature that connects players online.
But if the deal does go through, it could complicate Massive's role in the nascent world of in-game advertising, industry executives said. If it winds up being affiliated with Microsoft, Massive could lose the ability to place ads in games made for competing systems, like those from Nintendo and Sony.
The notion that Sony might reject ads placed by Massive "is a possibility, but it may not in fact be the way things turn out," Miscoll said, adding that rivals may not be able to resist accepting Massive's ads because "the economics of the Massive network to the video game publishers are very compelling."
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