Google Spends 3.1B Cash for DoubleClick

NYT: Google Buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion
Google reached an agreement today to acquire DoubleClick, the online advertising company, from two private equity firms for $3.1 billion in cash, the companies announced, an amount that was almost double the $1.65 billion in stock that Google paid for YouTube late last year.

Yahoo Biz: Google to Acquire DoubleClick
Combination Will Significantly Expand Opportunities for Advertisers, Agencies and Publishers and Improve Users’ Online Experience. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG - News) announced today a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick Inc., a global leader in digital marketing technology and services, for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management. The acquisition will combine DoubleClick’s expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google’s leading advertising platform and publisher monetization services.

GoogleBlog: The next step in Google advertising
At Google, we are constantly looking for new, innovative ways to make the information you want more accessible and more relevant—and to deliver it as fast as possible. Since Google’s inception, it has always been our intention to present users with highly targeted, useful advertisements when appropriate—ads that unobtrusively complement users experience. We have always believed in, and tirelessly pursued, the idea that serving relevant, unintrusive ads would best serve our advertisers in the long term.

DoubleClick to kill Right Media

The New York Times reported this morning that DoubleClick plans to launch an exchange for online advertisements. The system is described as follows:

"DoubleClick, based in New York, views the exchange as the centerpiece of a growth plan and may derive the majority of revenue from the new service within five years, said David Rosenblatt, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview yesterday. “We already have the largest sellers and the largest buyers,” he said. “This will link them for the first time.”

He described the exchange as a mix of eBay and Sabre, the airline reservations system that travel agents use. The service will let advertisers see information about what competitors bid for particular ads, in the same way that eBay shows visitors past bids. And it will let publishers try to ensure that they sell their ad spots at the highest possible price, the way that airlines try to do with the seats they sell."

The most important player in the advertising exchange space is known to be the New York based Right Media. In October of 2006, they closed a $45 million round that was lead by Yahoo. Especially interesting in the context of today's announcement was the following quote:

"Right Media helps match display advertisers with Web-site publishers, and it hopes to do for display ads what Google has done for search ads. It's an idea Walrath [Right Media's CEO] began exploring while working as director of direct marketing and senior vice-president of strategy and development at DoubleClick, the maker of online-advertising and media-management tools."

So the question here is how DoubleClick's plans relate to and affect the RightMedia's core business?

Only the time will tell...

FOX ACQUIRES STRATEGIC DATA CORPORATION

FOX INTERACTIVE MEDIA ACQUIRES INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY STRATEGIC DATA CORPORATION

Enhanced Media Network to Bring Hyper-targeted Ad Serving to Reality

Fox Interactive Media (FIM), a division of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), announced today that it has completed the acquisition of interactive advertising technology company, Strategic Data Corporation (SDC). SDC's advanced, proprietary technology is designed to optimize the delivery of online advertising.

SDC’s technology will enable FIM to deliver highly-targeted graphical performance-based advertising on literally billions of Web pages viewed each day across its growing network. Fox Interactive Media, which spans MySpace, IGN, Direct2Drive, AmericanIdol.com, AskMen.com and more, is among the most visited networks on the Internet with more than 135 million worldwide unique visitors each month and is the number one most viewed network in the U.S. with over 40 billion pages viewed each month.

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