NEW YORK and REDMOND, Wash. – May 23, 2012 – Today, 24/7 Media, WPP’s marketing technology company, and Microsoft Advertising announced an extensive partnership to support their customers in the rapidly changing digital advertising marketplace. As a result of this agreement, that brings together two of the largest players in the advertising industry, clients of both companies will benefit from markedly enhanced scale, optimization and automation. The global online ad market is estimated to exceed $98 billion in 2012.*

“This is an exciting day for 24/7 Media, WPP and our clients globally,” said David J. Moore, Chairman and CEO of 24/7 Media. “In partnering with Microsoft, one of our largest and most strategic clients, we are creating a very powerful suite of capabilities that rivals any other offering available today in digital marketing.”

“We’re very pleased to be able to strike this partnership with 24/7,” said Rik van der Kooi, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising. “Our mission is to provide extraordinary experiences for consumers and effective solutions for our digital marketing partners. Marketers are telling us they need to get their hands on premium quality inventory at-scale by reducing friction, which is what this deal will do. And unlocking new demand for publishers’ inventory through our Exchange will similarly create new value in the market.”

The agreement consists of four main components that will help strengthen advertising technology stacks and expand opportunities for the marketer and publisher clients of both WPP and Microsoft Advertising.

Specifically:

• The Microsoft Advertising Exchange will become the exclusive third-party ad exchange offered by Real Media Group, a business unit of 24/7 Media, to its 24/7 Open AdStream clients. Access to and management of the Exchange will be available via the 24/7 Open AdStream user interface and significant integration between the platforms. The arrangement provides 24/7 Open AdStream clients with seamless access to the Microsoft Advertising Exchange, which is designed specifically for the needs of premium publishers. 

• The Microsoft Media Network will become the only non-WPP demand source granted programmatic access to Real Media Group’s premium inventory. Marketers and agencies will benefit from having this quality advertising inventory from premium publishers available for purchase in conjunction with Microsoft’s data and ad offerings. At the same time, Real Media Group’s publishers will benefit from the addition of Microsoft’s high-quality advertiser base. Real Media Group may also use the Microsoft Advertising Exchange to provide exchange services to publishers who are part of the 24/7 Access audience activation channel, which has the fifth largest reach in the US and select other markets.

• 24/7 Connect, a powerful new tool that WPP agencies and clients around the world are using to simplify and automate their media planning, will include the full catalog of Microsoft’s ad offerings. In addition, WPP agencies and clients will be able to programmatically create media plans that include Microsoft Advertising offerings.  This will enable a richer set of solutions for the advertising needs of WPP agencies and clients, while also providing increased monetization of Microsoft’s publisher partner inventory.

• Microsoft, 24/7 Media, and WPP are also expanding their existing relationship around Microsoft’s Atlas ad server, which is a preferred ad server of WPP.  Microsoft and 24/7 Media will work together toward a zero discrepancy solution between Atlas and 24/7 Open AdStream. 24/7 Media will join the Atlas Technology Partner Alliance, supporting the integration between 24/7 Trader, 24/7 Media’s demand side platform used by WPP, and Microsoft’s Atlas ad server.

*GroupM, April 2012

About Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising provides advertisers and publishers with media, tools and services to help drive deep and profitable engagement with their audiences. This includes a media network that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers around the world; global technology platforms and tools that enable easy planning and management of campaigns and content; and services that help untangle the complexities of digital media to get more value from marketing and content investments. Microsoft Advertising makes buying and selling media simple, smart and cost-effective across media and devices in the Microsoft network of properties and beyond. More information is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About 24/7 Media

24/7 Media, Inc. is a leader in digital marketing technology, serving advertisers, agencies and digital publishers worldwide. The 24/7 technology platform spans every digital channel, providing users with unprecedented control and consolidated data analysis. This technology powers two specialized business units: Real Media Group helps marketing organizations engage their audiences with superior precision, transparency and return on investment. The group also helps digital publishers monetize their properties and manage advertising operations more effectively. Media Innovation Group provides advertisers and agencies with strategic consulting and implementation services that deliver competitive advantage in fields being transformed by technology.

Formerly 24/7 Real Media, the organization has been in the forefront of media innovation for fifteen years. 24/7 Media is a WPP Digital company headquartered in New York with 18 offices in a dozen countries. For more information, please visit www.247media.com.

24/7 Media is a member of the NAI and adheres to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to help ensure Internet user privacy. For more information about online data collection associated with ad serving, including online preference marketing and an opportunity to opt-out of 24/7 Media cookies, go to: www.networkadvertising.org.

NEW YORK — May 23 , 2012 — Marking the 10th anniversary of the Microsoft Imagine Cup student technology competition, Microsoft Corp. today announced the teams that will head to the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in July in Sydney, to showcase their innovative ideas for using technology to solve the world’s toughest problems. As the winners of regional, national and online Imagine Cup competitions, these students represent the future of technology innovation and entrepreneurialism.

Student teams from 75 countries have advanced to the finals with projects that tackle humanitarian issues including health, accessibility, the environment, education and more. They will compete at the Worldwide Finals event, July 6–10, for $175,000 (U.S.) in cash prizes in categories including Software Design, Game Design: Phone, Game Design: Xbox/Windows, the Windows Phone Challenge sponsored by Nokia, the IT Challenge, the Windows Azure Challenge, the Kinect Fun Labs Challenge sponsored by Microsoft Studios, and the Windows Metro Style App Challenge sponsored by Windows. In addition, today Microsoft is announcing two new awards for the Worldwide Finalists that are sponsored by The Coca-Cola Co.: Environmental Sustainability and Health Awareness. All Worldwide Finalist teams are invited to apply for these awards.

“During the past decade, students have taken the lead in adopting new technologies and championing social transformation,” said Moorthy Uppaluri, general manager, Academic Programs at Microsoft. “Ten years ago, we created Imagine Cup with the idea that students can change the world — and every year they continue to demonstrate their passion and creativity in creating technology that makes the world a better place.”

More on the Environmental Sustainability and Health Awareness Awards

Microsoft and Coca-Cola are also announcing a collaboration to encourage the next generation of young technologists and entrepreneurs to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to improve the environment and healthy living. Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalist teams whose projects target these topics will be eligible to compete for the new Imagine Cup 2012 Environmental Sustainability Award and Health Awareness Award, sponsored by Coca-Cola.

“Given the scale and complexity of today’s issues, it’s challenging for one business or even one industry to make a difference alone,” said Guy Wollaert, chief technical officer, The Coca-Cola Co. “Coca-Cola’s support of Imagine Cup provides an additional venue for students to be recognized for their innovation in addressing the world’s toughest environmental and health-related issues.”

The winning team for each award will be announced at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney and each team will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000 (U.S.). More information can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com.

A Decade of Imagine Cup

Imagine Cup has inspired a generation, with 1.65 million students from 190 countries participating in the competition during the past decade. Since last year, students from 29 new regions and countries, including Haiti, Rwanda, the Republic of Kosovo and Myanmar, have registered for the competition.

This year marks the first time that the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals event will take place in Australia.

During the first Imagine Cup in 2003, there were a little more than 1,000 registrants from 25 countries, with only 15 finalist teams competing at the Worldwide Finals in Barcelona. Tu Nguyen, from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, won first prize with a Pocket PC application designed to bridge the language gap between English-speaking waiters and Vietnamese-speaking chefs. Like many Imagine Cup alumni, Nguyen has gone on to become an entrepreneur and innovator; he was recognized in 2006 by the Midlands Business Journal as one of Omaha’s top 40 executives under 40 years of age, and is now chief technology officer of DocLanding, an online document management provider.

Dreaming Big and Creating Real-World Solutions: Imagine Cup Grants

To extend the impact of Imagine Cup, last year Microsoft launched the Imagine Cup Grants program, a three-year, $3 million investment by Microsoft to help students turn their ideas into reality. The first year of grant recipients were announced in January, including team Lifelens (United States), which developed a Windows Phone application that can detect the presence of malaria through a blood sample. The team is using the financial and in-kind support from the grant to develop its technology into a platform that uses Windows 8-based tablets and addresses other pathological diseases in addition to malaria.

“The Imagine Cup opens up students’ eyes to nontraditional technology applications that can address global issues and enable teams to brainstorm innovative ways to solve these problems,” said Wilson To, on behalf of the team.

More information about the Lifelens project is available at http://lifelensproject.com/blog.

All the 2012 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalists announced today will be eligible to apply for the Imagine Cup Grants program this year.

Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finalists

The 2012 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finalist teams are:

More information about Imagine Cup is available at the Imagine Cup Virtual Pressroom and on the Imagine Cup blog.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 23, 2012 — TechCrunch Disrupt winner Soluto, a home PC remote-management startup, has switched to Windows Azure to help deliver its tool to more than 3 million PCs worldwide, maintain its market momentum and uncap its business potential. By adopting Windows Azure, Soluto solved scaling issues that arose after it won the worldwide competition for IT startups.

Soluto uses Windows Azure table storage to save PC data, deliver it to users and process it with data from other machines. Soluto users generate tens of millions of data transactions every day, making Soluto one of the largest consumers of Windows Azure resources among startups worldwide.

“Using Windows Azure, we have the capacity to process hundreds of terabytes of data,” said Tomer Dvir, co-founder and CEO of Soluto. “That releases our growth potential and gives us the agility to watch the market evolve, learn from our customers, enhance our products and develop a profitable model.”

In May 2010, Dvir and Ishay Green publicly launched Soluto at the inaugural TechCrunch Disrupt. Soluto won Best of Show, and suddenly the company had media coverage in global outlets such as The New York Times, CNN and the BBC. In the month after TechCrunch Disrupt, almost 1 million people downloaded Soluto.

“Our server environment couldn't scale up fast enough,” said Roee Adler, chief product officer at Soluto. “We needed a better, more flexible solution, but we still wanted to avoid the risk of a big IT investment.”

The team expected that transferring a live application to the cloud would be challenging, and it quickly determined that it could support Soluto most effectively with Windows Azure. “Because we could work with familiar tools, such as the .NET Framework and Visual Studio, we knew that we could get to market much faster with Windows Azure than we would with Amazon,” Adler said.

After migrating to Windows Azure, Soluto has grown rapidly. By October 2011, the application had 3 million downloads. Demand can spike by as much as 30 million transactions per day, but the Soluto team can quickly and easily scale Windows Azure to avoid any break in service.

“With Windows Azure, we have complete elasticity and endless scalability,” Dvir said. “We are ready to serve any peak in consumer demand.”

For more customer success stories, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/customerspotlight.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.