Certain major players in the tech industry have recently completed the purchase of, or are in the process of purchasing, several well known digital and mobile marketing companies.

The main business of these companies is mobile advertising or creating advertising platforms. With the proliferation of mobile handsets and other devices in the U.S. such as the soon-to-be-released iPhone from the Apple/AT&T nexus, advertisers are striving mightily to reach the mobile masses.

Microsoft, still reeling from the loss of digital online advertising giant, DoubleClick, to Google, has jumped into the fray using its financial muscle to buy similar companies. They recently bought ScreenTonic, a European mobile advertising firm specializing in mobile ad serving and management expertise. Microsoft hopes to increase advertiser opportunity across its own Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions platform.

Microsoft believes this purchase will buttress its goal of building a cross-platform, global ad placement capability. This will permit advertisers to drop their marketing message into your cell phone, your video games (in both your first AND your Second Life), your web browsing, and anywhere Microsoft interfaces with the user. They want it all.

Microsoft never buys one company when it can buy more companies that do the same thing. So, last week it also acquired digital marketing company aQuantive Inc. The price was $66.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at about $6 billion. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of Microsoft's fiscal year 2008, but doe not figure to have a significant impact on the financial outlook previously provided by the company. Further, the company said that aQuantive, which has approximately 2600 employees, would continue to operate from its Seattle headquarters, as part of Microsoft's Online Services Business. Following the announcement of the deal, shares of aQuantive soared more than 77% in Friday's regular trading session.

The mobile advertising business has already booked $500 million plus, and with the figures expected to reach up to four or five billion dollars in the next five years, the big boys are lining up to buy any mobile or online ad company that can help them carve up a big slice of that pie.

Not to outdone, AOL is currently trying to acquire Third Screen Media, a developer of mobile phone advertising technology, in a deal that could be worth up to $80 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal is a foregone conclusion. Based in Boston, the four-year-old company offers a mobile ad network and Web-based mobile ad management and delivery platform. Third Screen Media's customers include heavyweights MSNBC and ad agency giant Universal McCann.

The buying frenzy was not restricted to U.S. media or advertising giants. U.K. advertising behemoth, WPP, the world’s second largest advertising group, bought 24/7 Real Media, the US digital marketing company, for $649 million (or £325 million).

The cash deal at $11.75 a share was inevitable as WPP hopes to strengthen its presence in the digital advertising market amid increasing competition from online rivals. It is no secret that Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP’s chief executive, focused his attention on 24/7 Real Media after also losing out to Google over DoubleClick.

Lorna Tilbian, an analyst at Numis Securities, said: “This deal was inevitable. Advertisers like WPP want to be able to offer clients the full package and digital is an increasingly important part of that.”

These purchases follow Yahoo’s acquisition, in April of this year, of Right Media, the ad exchange, for $680 million. These acquisitions are certainly precursors to more such deals in the near future. There is no doubt that mobile advertising is experiencing a huge uptick in importance as mobile media becomes ever more ubiquitous, worldwide.