This week Microsoft made a HUGE purchase, plonking down $6.1 billion for aQuantive, which includes Atlas, Drive Performance Media and Avenue A Razorfish. Following the initial public announcement, the following news bites have been posted over the past two days, highlighting just how rosy Microsoft feels about this deal:

From the New York Post:
"It is certainly a significant transaction and large in the context of what we have done historically, but we think entirely appropriate in terms of looking forward rather than backward," Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's chief advertising strategist, said on a conference call to discuss the deal.

From CNET News:
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Internet Conference, Microsoft Chief Advertising Strategist Yusuf Mehdi said the company does not necessarily need to acquire more scale in order to be a success. When asked whether there would be assets from Yahoo that could help Microsoft, Mehdi said, "From where we are today, I think we have all the pieces."

From ActiveWin.com:
"I would call the aQuantive acquisition more of a merger" than an acquisition, Berkowitz said. He said that he told Microsoft employees the same during an internal Town Meeting on the deal on May 18. Berkowitz characterized the aQuantive buy as an "additive." "It puts us in places where we weren’t before," he said.