Microsoft puts Razorfish on the block, Financial Times reports

Microsoft is putting Razorfish, its online advertising subsidiary, up for sale, according to The Financial Times.

The Redmond software company declined to comment on Monday's report, which said Morgan Stanley had been hired to find a potential buyer. The report also suggested French marketing company Publicis could be a suitor.

Microsoft bought Avenue A Razorfish as part of its $6 billion purchase of aQuantive, a holding company, in 2007. Razorfish has since dropped Avenue A from the name.

The ad agency has gone through two rounds of layoffs in the past year, including 70 job cuts in February and 40 jobs in October, citing economic conditions and shrinking budgets for financial and technology clients. The company had as many as 2,400 employees internationally previously.

Those staff cuts were made separately from the 5,000 companywide layoffs at Microsoft this winter.

Founded in 1995, the company became one of the largest interactive marketers and buyers of online ad inventory.

It went public in 2000 and grew through a series of acquisitions to offer a suite of services for advertising clients.

The company helps create advertising and branding campaigns, places the ads on Web sites and tracks the traffic on those ads. It also builds Web sites for companies.

A company fact sheet said Razorfish made $300 million in annual sales in 2007. Clients include Nike, Disney and Kraft.

An unnamed analyst cited in the Financial Times report valued the company at $600 million to $700 million.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com