Microsoft is reportedly looking to sell its online advertising agency Razorfish just two years after acquiring it as part of a $6bn deal for parent company aQuantive Inc. According to a report in the Financial Times, Microsoft has brought in the investment bank Morgan Stanley to seek out a potential buyer for the agency, which according to predictions should sell for somewhere between $600 million and $700 million in the current economic climate. There has been some speculation about whether or not Microsoft would part with Razorfish as part of its plans to cut back on unnecessary costs and concentrate purely on its core business during the recession.

When Microsoft bought aQuantive back in 2007 its main purpose was to create a stronger online advertisng network for the brand and enable the company to compete more effectively with Google. Avenue A/Razorfish, as the company was then called, was far less important to Microsoft than the other benefits aQuantive had to offer in terms of expanding Microsoft’s online advertising presence and placing the company in a far better position to compete with search engine giant Google. Acquiring an advertising agency, though, left Microsoft with a possible conflict of interest as Razorfish is a direct competitor to Microsoft’s own advertising campaigns for marketing its products online.

Razorfish has produced successful online advertising campaigns for a number of big clients such as Nike, Mercedes-Benz USA, Levi-Strauss & Co and Audi. The estimated price of the agency may seem like a mere drop in the ocean of Microsofts finances, but the decision to sell could enable Microsoft to put more emphasis on marketing their own products across different media. The FT report names French marketing company Publicis Groupe as the most likely contender to buy Razorfish, following rumours that Publicis and Microsoft are planning to join forces for a TV ad campaign in the near future.

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