"Under the terms of the agreement, both companies would benefit. AOL would take over management and sales for the majority of the advertising on Microsoft’s gaming, mobile, and web products. In exchange, AOL would make Bing their search engine of choice instead of Google—a significant boost for Bing since AOL still has 2.2 million dial-up subscribers alone (yes, even in 2015). AOL would also extend job offers to more than 1,000 Microsoft employees working in the adtech space. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Microsoft will continue to have an advertising division with a much smaller portfolio. Additional Microsoft responsibilities were handed over to another adtech firm, New York’s AppNexus." [My itals]
Microsoft more or less gave up on the ad businesses in 2012 when it wrote off $6.2bn over its purchase of aQuantive. http://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/microsoft-ad-bu...?