With Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) buying web advertiser DoubleClick and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) buying the rest of Right Media, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is probably feeling the heat and has looked for a "me too" acquisition to throw some of its cash hoard at.

Enter European mobile phone advertising company ScreenTonic, which Microsoft announced it would be acquiring. Microsoft, which so far has been trounced even in the mobile market by Google and Yahoo!, wants to ensure it can level the playing field for mobile-based advertising.

As more and more business online is subsidized by advertising, that business model will rapidly move to the mobile screen. There are way more mobiles in the world than total PCs, so this makes sense. What is unclear to me at least is how advertisers are going to be successful getting ads in front of eyeballs on screens the size of two inches. In that realm, every millimeter is precious, and my guess is that customers won't stand for intrusive advertising on those mobile screens the way many put up with on full computer screens. I'm sure Google's model for effective and unobtrusive advertising will make it to the mobile realm (I hope), but so far it's in its infancy.

What is Microsoft's strategy here? Firstly, the European wireless market is much more advanced in terms of usage and proficiency than it is in the U.S. I'd venture to guess that Europeans use the wireless web and text messaging (and other features) at a level that leaves American wireless subscribers in the dust. This is no surprise, since only recently did U.S. wireless networks start having the capable phones and data speeds to make non-voice revenue a reality. Microsoft's bid to get a hold of ScreenTonic's platform to manage and place ads on the mobile Internet seems logical to me -- and now the company must execute on the acquisition and not get side-stepped by Google on that front as well. Just acquiring a front runner doesn't guarantee future success.

Perhaps still stinging from losing DoubleClick to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has completed the purchase of European mobile advertising company ScreenTonic.

ScreenTonic provides the ads that pop up on cell phones of customers in Belgium, France and the U.K. It claims to have recently passed the billion-ads placed milestone. Visiongain, a media research company, recently released a report that estimated mobile marketing in the U.S. and Europe would hit $1 billion by 2009, benefiting from the use of new technology such as 3G.

Microsoft describes this purchase as another building block toward 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, anywhere Microsoft touches you. And it wants to touch you all over.

ScreenTonic was privately held, and terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The company will continue to maintain its headquarters in Paris.

Me, I'm not doing cartwheels at the thought that MSFT will find its way into my phone. It's already all over my PC.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has its own answer to the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) purchase of ad auction business Right Media and Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) acquisition of ad serving giant Doubleclick. The world's largest software company is going after a different platform -- the cell phone.

Microsoft today announced that it is buying ScreenTonic. The Paris-based company places and manages ads on wireless handsets. As the market for placing and brokering ads on the PC-based Internet gets more crowded, Microsoft is probably smart to look to the next platform that could see rapid ad growth.

The software company told Reuters: "The acquisition of ScreenTonic will be part of our long-term strategy to deliver ad experiences that map to the (mobile Internet)," said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president at Microsoft's online services group.

Microsoft efforts to build a web presence with MSN and a search platform have been an embarrassing failure. MSFT's search share runs around 12%, about half Yahoo!'s. There are still rumors that the company could buy 24/7 RealMedia (NASDAQ: TFSM) to get into the mainstream ad brokerage business.

But with Google owning the search market, and Doubleclick being in second place, at best, it may not suit Microsoft. So it may be on to greener pastures.