MSFT isn't out of the ad business. They are keeping Bing and likely to make some interesting new ad units that involve Cortana.
Getting out of display media for them is smart. Fundamentally they are a software company and there are already players that sell media better than they can. It isn't a software problem, it's about building sales relationships with media agencies.
A streamlined P&L and staffing strategy will let them focus on making a developer-centric product company. They will still make plenty of ad money, but don't have to staff for it.
The question is whether this deal is about getting out of display advertising for Microsoft, or simply an effort to push Bing in exchange for the less performing advertising units. AOL owns a ton of traffic, technically it's a big win for Bing.
Getting out of display media for them is smart. Fundamentally they are a software company and there are already players that sell media better than they can. It isn't a software problem, it's about building sales relationships with media agencies.
A streamlined P&L and staffing strategy will let them focus on making a developer-centric product company. They will still make plenty of ad money, but don't have to staff for it.