All Quiet On The DoubleClick Front... Or Not

from the war-games dept

Just last week, there was a flurry of news about how Microsoft and Google were in a bidding war for DoubleClick, the onetime leader in internet advertising. According to people that were apparently close to the situation (always to be taken with a grain of salt), Microsoft had put in a bid for the company, only to be outbid by Google. Since then, however, there's been no news at all on the situation. Larry Dignan throws out some interesting possibilities of what might be going on here. One scenario is that one of the parties has basically secured a deal, but there's still some details to be worked out. It's also possible that Google only feigned interest in DoubleClick so that it could get an inside look at its operations. Another likely situation is that Microsoft and Google are basically fighting a war of words. Instead of actually being interested in acquiring DoubleClick, the two sides might be throwing out feelers just to see how the other side responds. DoubleClick isn't nearly as important as it used to be, but it's still big enough that both companies may not want the other to get its hands on it. Of course, unfulfilled acquisition rumors are thrown out on a daily basis, so it remains possible that the story is completely groundless, in which case DoubleClick's private equity owners better hope that the company's plan to be the NASDAQ of internet advertising takes off. Update: It turns out that the deal has materialized, and Google is the winner. It's paying a whopping $3.1 billion for the company, making it by far the biggest acquisition in the company's history; that's nearly twice as much as it paid for YouTube.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    carlos barrientos, 13 Apr 2007 @ 12:06pm

    Ad Exchange

    Double Click is working on an Advertising Marketplace where you auction off the ad space on a website to the highest bidder. Microsoft and Google lack this type of service to clients, and want to have a lead on it. eBay could be a good fit too, since it already operates an auction exchange. Better fit than Skyype for ebay.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Howard Lee Harkness, 13 Apr 2007 @ 12:44pm

    Hosts file

    Since I added doubleclick (along with the URLs of a couple of dozen other crap spewers) to my hosts file to prevent anything they stick into a website from loading, I've noticed that page loads are MUCH faster
    --
    Violins and Accessories

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Erstazi, 13 Apr 2007 @ 2:03pm

      Re: Hosts file

      If the basic user knew how to edit the HOST file (either Windows or *nux [I suspect that most *nix users know how to edit a host file]), there wouldn't be much left to the internet advertising business. Some sites, like myspace (poor example), rely on ads. Personally, my HOST file is well used. Even before, I never clicked ads and I don't see how majority of the people out there would really click ads.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2007 @ 2:16pm

    Selling Internet advertising is like owning a toll booth that has a well-known shortcut around it. You might make a few bucks off the idiots, but you don't really have much of a business.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tony, 13 Apr 2007 @ 2:42pm

    Spoke too soon!

    DoubleClick goes to Google for $3.1 Billion!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    techdirtReader, 13 Apr 2007 @ 3:13pm

    Purchasing evil for $3.1 billion

    What does a do-no-evil company (don't laugh) do after purchasing a company that specializes in evil?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike Andersen, 13 Apr 2007 @ 4:01pm

    Re: Purchasing evil for $3.1 billion

    I have faith that Google can turn it around, put new senior management in place that will enable it to keep a majority of it's prime customers and loose some of the dead weight that gives DoubleClick it's negative image. Besides, they have offices in Colorado, Illinois, and New York that will probably be migrated to the MountainView campus... That's a lot of people who may have to relocate, or be replaced with senior staff at Google.

    Take heed to the 80/20 rule- I imagine 20% of the accounts make up 80% of DoubleClick's negative reputation.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2007 @ 7:24pm

      Re: Re: Purchasing evil for $3.1 billion

      But Google has offices in Colorado (Sketchup) and a big one in New York...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ♦♦♦ Search Engine WEB ♦ , 13 Apr 2007 @ 10:53pm

    Microsoft was to buy Claria a few Years Ago

    Remember that controversy surrounding Microsoft's plans to buy Claria

    It will be interesting to see WHAT Yahoo does in response to stay competative - and what MSN will do?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MIKE, 14 Apr 2007 @ 3:54am

    Most evil ba******s on the planet

    Apart from the RIAA Double click are evil but you cant kill it the devil would lose his job. They are the responsible for 1/2 of the malware spyware that attempts to reach my computers which I am pleased to say gets droped before it can do damage. Whats Goooooogle want with them?????

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Vincent Clement (profile), 14 Apr 2007 @ 6:06am

      Re: Most evil ba******s on the planet

      Please explain how DoubleClick is responsible for "1/2 of the malware spyware" attempts on your computers? There are DoubleClick banner ads on Techdirt and I have yet to experience any attempts of malware spyware to reach my computer.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Charles Griswold, 14 Apr 2007 @ 12:48pm

        Re: Re: Most evil ba******s on the planet

        There are DoubleClick banner ads on Techdirt [. . .]
        I just looked at this page using a browser that doesn't have Adblock Plus, and hey, you're right! I just never saw them before. :-)

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2007 @ 8:12am

    Erstazi, re editing your hosts file - an internet company as big as Google owns millions of IP addresses. It would be easy to build a system where each ad served comes from a different IP. You could surf for a lifetime and every ad you see could come from a different 'place'. Ad blocking is a temporary solution and won't work for long. Would you rather PAY for all this great content???

    So Google went ahead and bought doubleclick?!? How did a techdirt reader know at 2:42pm???!!! Different Timezones?

    Will it be doublegoo.com or goobleclick.com ?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    just me, 4 May 2007 @ 7:40pm

    OUCH!

    doubleclick ads on TechDirt! I never knew that either. I have no intentions of letting my guard down here, just to see one. Those oh so poor souls that don't know how to block em... hmm...

    *Just Me gives all those poor souls a cookie.*

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.