• BussinessWeek et al., Thursday, January 21, 2010 1:45 PM

Over three years after Microsoft announced a deal to sell ads on Facebook, and two years since shelling out $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the network, the relationship appears to have run aground.

Microsoft has already lost part of Facebook's ad business, and, while it's presently renegotiating the agreement, the software giant still faces the possibility that more ads will be pulled, writes BusinessWeek.

"Facebook stopped using Microsoft this month to sell graphical banner ads in some international markets," BusinessWeek reports. It may also drop those ads in the U.S., Robin Domeniconi, vice president of U.S. ad sales at Microsoft, tells the magazine.

According to All Facebook, "It's pretty clear that the decision has already been made ... People that we've been speaking to for weeks have been stating that Facebook's own ad team have been telling them that banner ads will be phased out completely."

According to paidContent, "The moves represent quite a big turnaround since the ad relationship between the two companies has only been growing in recent years."

Then, what would explain the about-face? For one, "As Facebook has grown, so has the social network's desire to do things on its own," paidContent reasons.

"Perhaps," suggests Mashable, "This a sign that Facebook's social ads are performing well and its business is maturing -- so much so that the company needs to grab back some of the inventory that has previously been filled by Microsoft ... At this point, that looks more likely than any sort of riff between the two companies, whose deal also includes Bing powering web search results on Facebook."

Those looking for more evidence of Facebook's growing ambitions should consider a report today in Data Center Knowledge about the network's plans to begin building its own data centers.

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