Microsoft and Amazon are teaming up to create a new media company that will be a competitor to Google, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The deal will be announced at a private dinner in New York City on Saturday, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The new company will be called “Microsoft News” and will focus on news, entertainment, sports and technology, according the sources.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Buzzfeed is not a complete surprise to investors who have long worried about Amazon and Google’s dominance in online advertising.
But it has drawn particular attention since the two companies are currently battling for the digital advertising market.
Both Google and Amazon have had success at targeting consumers on social media.
Google has long dominated online search and ad placement, while Amazon has focused on digital video.
The two companies have had a tumultuous relationship over how much Google pays publishers to be listed on its search engine.
Microsoft has been battling with publishers for years to control the online advertising market, particularly in the digital space.
It has lost the race to Google in recent years, but still competes aggressively with Amazon for consumers’ attention and ad spending.
The company will also have access to Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, the sources said.
The deal will give Microsoft access to the search engine that was launched with Bing in 2008 and has been a top revenue generator for the company.
Bing has been viewed as Microsoft’s crown jewel since its launch and it is widely considered to be the industry standard for online search.
The sale of BuzzFeed to Microsoft comes amid concerns that Google is poised to dominate online advertising by 2020.
Google recently announced that it would spend $50 billion to buy advertising technology company AdSense, which is valued at $1.4 billion.
Google’s search advertising business is valued around $3.3 billion, according Reuters data.
Google is one of the biggest advertisers on Facebook and Twitter, but also has a larger presence in video.
