Kenny, seen here in Boston as chairman/CEO of Digitas, in 2007

Local digital advertising executive David Kenny — the managing partner of VivaKi, which is the digital unit of Publicis Groupe (known better locally as Digitas) — is making the media rounds in the wake of the Microsoft-Yahoo search advertising deal announced earlier this week.

Kenny weighed in on the Microsoft-Yahoo deal in a New York Times blog and, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Kenny was also among a number of digital ad executives whom Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz met with back in June. The WSJ said they discussed how a possible Microsoft-Yahoo deal could add value to VivaKi’s clients. “I didn’t feel they were lobbying, but felt they were generally asking my opinion,” Kenny told the Journal.

In AdAge, Kenny was quoted as saying that the deal is “a net positive for marketers.”

“Anything that creates a credible platform and more innovation in search is going to be good for consumers and, therefore, good for advertisers,” he told AdAge.