• April 30, 2008

Almost a year after last July¹s $275 million purchase of Tacoda, AOL plans to employ the firm¹s behavioral targeting technology across its entire Platform-A Network starting in June.

The announcement came a week after news of the latest departures of former Tacoda executives from AOL's ranks. Those who have left this year include: founder Dave Morgan, CEO Curt Viebranz, President Daniel Jaye, CFO Mark Pinney, Senior VP of Ad Sales Matt Arkin and Senior VP of Marketing and Business Development Larry Allen.

After buying several ad-related companies in the past couple of years including Tacoda, Internet ad network Advertising.com, video ad network Lightningcast, mobile ad network Third Screen Media and ad-serving company AdTech AOL lately has been busy integrating them. For example, it bought contextual ad network Quigo Technologies in November for $350 million, and last month integrated Quigo's Feedpoint search marketing product with Advertising.com's OutSearch to form what it calls a comprehensive suite of advanced SEM services.

--Les Luchter