I don't look to the New York Post as a source of authoritative news - and it's unusual for the NY Post to have a business scoop before the New York Times, but is sounds like Holly M. Sanders has a scoop ONE GIANT LEAP -

"…Sources said the software giant is considering a price in the $1 billion range for 24/7 Media - a giant leap from the $600 million valuation analysts placed on the firm.

Microsoft, which has been kicking a lot of tires in the last few weeks, is getting serious about the ad firm after two of its fiercest rivals increased their online arsenals through similar acquisitions.

Yahoo! announced yesterday it would buy the 80 percent of online ad exchange Right Media it didn't own for $680 million, valuing the entire firm at around $850 million. The acquisition follows Google's $3.1 billion deal for DoubleClick, which serves up and tracks Web ads.

Microsoft's deep pockets and fear of falling behind rivals could further drive up the price for 24/7 Real Media, one of the remaining players in the same space.

…… A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment on what she described as speculation and rumor.

"The longer they waited, the more they would have to pay," said Kevin Lee, chairman of search-advertising firm Did-it.com."

I first heard about this story from SearchEngineLand.  According to Danny Sullivan:

"…What's wrong with this picture? The same thing wrong with Google's planned purchase of DoubleClick — that the move also puts a search engine into the search marketing game."

Since the news is still developing on this story - I'll refrain from speculation till the dust settles.