Google buys DoubleClick
MarketWatch reports that Google is buying the advertising firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Supposedly, Microsoft had also been interested in buying the company. It looks to me like Google overpaid in order to stick a thumb in Microsoft’s eye. The current owners of DoubleClick paid $1.1 billion in 2005 so they have made out handsomely. I wonder if Google knows how many people dislike the advertising from DoubleClick. Personally, I block their stuff by either a Hosts file or by configuring IE and Firefox to blacklist them.
What will Microsoft do as a riposte? Some rumors have floated around the Web for quite a while that Microsoft might buy Yahoo. That seems a little improbable but who knows? Maybe Ballmer will stop throwing chairs and trash-talking and start dealing.
Update: The Wall Street Journal blog, the Deal Journal, says that Google paid a “nosebleed price” and comments:
… late word comes that Google won a spirited auction for online ad agency DoubleClick, agreeing to plunk down a whopping $3 billion. At a double-digit multiple to DoubleClick’s annual revenue, the price is positively Internet bubblesque.
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