• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, July 13, 2009 11:46 AM

Microsoft is shopping digital ad agency Razorfish to five of the world's largest advertising holding companies, The Wall Street Journal reports. The software giant is also seeking to have the top bidder buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ad space across its Web properties, according to executives close to the talks.

Under the proposed deal, one of either Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe, WPP, Interpublic or Dentsu would buy Razorfish along with the right to use Microsoft's digital advertising services to buy space across its properties. However, The Journal notes that there is a lot at stake for the business relationships between these companies, and that aligning too closely with Microsoft could pose a threat to their status as a neutral third party looking for the best deals for their clients.

According to the report, the talks are still preliminary; no deal is expected for a few months yet. One source claims that Microsoft still hasn't made up its mind about selling Razorfish. Others claims the price could be as low as $400 million to hundreds of millions more, depending on the ad-buying commitments included in the deal.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »