Microsoft recorded an expense of 6,200 million

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft acknowledged Tuesday that its largest acquisition in the Internet sector is almost devoid of value and erased any benefits from the last quarter as the company announced an expenditure of 6,200 million dollars (about 4.922 million euros) to amortize the value of an online advertising agency that bought five years ago.

The announcement was an unexpected but not really surprised investors who had largely forgotten the purchase of aQuantive in 2007. At first, it was expected that the deal would strengthen the online advertising revenue of the company and counteract the purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick by rival Google.

Microsoft shares fell slightly to $ 30.28 in trading after the close, after closing at $ 30.56 on Nasdaq's current operations.

The largest software company in the world said in a statement that "the acquisition did not accelerate the growth of expectations, contributing to the depreciation."

Microsoft bought aQuantive for 6,300 million dollars in cash, in an attempt to catch its rival Google in the race for graphical advertising revenue related to the searches. At the time was the largest acquisition by Microsoft, and has been surpassed only by the purchase last year of Skype by 8,500 million dollars. However, he was never a success and the senior management of a Microsoft Quantive soon stopped.

Following its annual assessment of goodwill - the amount paid by a company in excess of its net assets, Microsoft said Monday it would take a noncash expense of 6,300 million, indicating that the acquisition of aQuantive and has no value.

Spending is likely to erase any benefit from the company in the fourth quarter of fiscal year. Wall Street had expected Microsoft to submit quarterly net income of about 5,250 million dollars, or 62 cents a share, on July 19.

In addition to depreciation, Microsoft said its expectations for future growth and profitability of its online services unit, which includes Bing and MSN web portal, are "lower than previous estimates."