Microsoft Acquires LinkExchange

Posted on November 5, 1998

Microsoft Corp. announced it has acquired LinkExchange Inc., a provider of online marketing services to website owners and small and medium-sized businesses. LinkExchange will become part of the MSN network of Internet products and services.

LinkExchange delivers services to help website owners and small businesses promote and improve their websites and use electronic commerce to expand online revenues. LinkExchange's flagship product, Banner Network, is an advertising network of more than 400,000 sites that reaches more than 21 million online consumers.

"MSN is committed to being an important ally for every small business online, and with this acquisition MSN can bring small-business customers excellent online marketing tools," said Laura Jennings, vice president of MSN. "We are also able to expand the MSN network to include the hundreds of thousands of high-quality smaller sites in the LinkExchange network, which represent the heart of the Web. Members of MSN will have easier access to these sites to do everything from buying gourmet coffee to finding the best fishing sites in Alaska."

The addition of LinkExchange to MSN will allow members of the LinkExchange network to advertise across the MSN network of services, which includes the MSN Expedia travel service, the MSN CarPoint online automotive service and MSN MoneyCentral. In addition, each of the small businesses and Web sites in the LinkExchange network will be included in the MSN directory and MSN Web Search results page. More services and additional integration are in the planning stages and are planned to be rolled out over the next 90 days.

"The Web is intimidating for many small-business owners; LinkExchange was founded to make it easier for Web site owners to generate exposure and traffic for their Web sites," said Mark Bozzini, CEO of LinkExchange. "Becoming part of the MSN network gives our customers the opportunity to achieve this on a much broader scale with some of the most popular sites on the Internet."