Online ad spend to lead acquisitions?

The company's chief executive Brian McAndrews has already earmarked Europe - particularly the UK - as an area for expansion and the success of online advertising both in the US and UK could speed up the process.

aQuantive is likely to spend the next two years growing both organically and through acquisitions as it seeks to crack the $1bn revenues barrier.

However, much as aQuantive is eyeing Europe and the UK for those companies ripe for takeover, it too could be the subject of an acquisition in its home country.

Online advertising is currently responsible for between 3% and 5% of total ad revenues but that is a figure that has risen sharply in the last two years and looks set to continue to do so. US advertisers alone are expected to spend 25% to 30% more on online advertising this year, with some companies set to increase budgets by as much as 50%.

These kind of figures are of interest to offline advertising agencies seeking ways to shore up their market share.

Any buyout, though, is likely to happen once aQuantive has fully integrated online agency Avenue A/Razorfish, which it bought for $160m last year.