• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 19, 2007

Two Google enemies, Microsoft and Viacom, have banded together in a deal reportedly worth $500 million.

The agreement calls for Microsoft's recently acquired Atlas to serve ads on all Viacom Web sites. Currently, DoubleClick -- which has agreed to be acquired by Google -- serves ads for Viacom, according to the Associated Press.

Viacom also will make video content available to MSN and Xbox 360, as the company continues to seek new ways to distribute content. Viacom, which earlier this year signed with Web video start-up Joost, recently launched sites to house clips from "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "South Park."

The deal comes about eight months after Viacom struck another blow at Google by tapping Yahoo to power search on its site.

These moves clearly show Viacom is trying to align itself with rivals of Google, whom Viacom is suing for copyright infringement. And, while it might be understandable that Viacom executives want to avoid doing business with a courtroom foe, it's also somewhat self-defeating. If Viacom wants its clips seen by a bigger audience, continuing to eschew Google-YouTube isn't the way to accomplish that.

And, while the deal seems like a coup for Microsoft, the timing is odd considering that Microsoft is lobbying to block Google's merger with DoubleClick. If nothing else, this deal appears to show that Google-DoubleClick won't be the only option for online advertisers after the merger. Of course, that in itself doesn't mean the pending merger won't affect competition. Even if Viacom is able to avoid dealing with Google-DoubleClick, the combined entity will still be an online powerhouse, with ties to nearly every other publisher and marketer on the Web.