Comments on: Google buys ad firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion

Deal boosts the search giant's banner advertising business, which lagged rival Yahoo's.

[amadensor]

What ever happened to "Do no evil?"

NT

[sean710]

they will see it differently.

one thing I know about companies is that there is a breaking point when it comes to decision making and profits.

The bigger a company gets, the greater the effort is needed to focus on meeting revenue requirements. Ultimately there will be trade-offs made to keep the company profitable and healthy. 3B is a big purchase, and an obvious marriage of the information google already has, and the infrastructure they're buying is inevitable.

They have the can, and the can opener. Guess what goes next?

[theCorpCOO]

Next Acquisition is to create Cheap TV Spots

The next logical acquisition is Spotrunner, Spotzer, or the very first
international internet-based TV ad agency Cheap-TV-Spots.com.
I'd say 90 days for an announcement because things in the area of
web video are moving so fast. My guess (and you're not going to
believe this), is Spotzer. Of course, I never thought Google would
top $200, either. ;-)

[ltvnet]

Google is not "stifling innovation".

I used to be someone who lamented at every major buyout, thinking that it inevitably led to a diminution in overall innovation. But ultimately, that has never been proven; especially with the Internet.

Frankly, buyouts like Google/Doubleclick are often an organic market-based means of shaking out the excesses, and creating clarity in the market for the next wave of innovations.

Never forget that Google came on the scene at a time when, it seemed, that the "search engines" market was saturated with Yahoo! et al. Similarly, even Google's current position in Internet video (i.e., YouTube) is precarious. That market is still very wide open, and so nebulous. It's the perfect playground for new innovators. And that's only one aspect of the Internet.

Another point: Google's acquisitions have not been "hostile takeovers". I'm sure DoubleClick's original investors are quite pleased with 3.1b in cash.

It's okay for a once-fledging, "new age" (whatever that means) company to grow into an enormous leviathan. As long as there are other pathways to the market (no matter how narrow, no matter how labyrinthian), new companies will use their perspicacity, creativity and perserverance to ensure a robust market overall.

ESPECIALLY on the Internet.

[WxULM]

Doesn't matter to me.

It used to be about coal people buying railroads, etc, now it is all about buying and selling information. I say way to go Google. However, pretty soon they might become too big and will probably be broken up as were corporations that were too large in the past and stifled competition because of it.

As for me, I have DoubleClick as well as all advertising website blocked with my Smoothwall / DansGuardian setup. All for free.

[vangeest]

Integrative analysis of pros and cons of this deal

http://tinyurl.com/2a8kcx

In the above URL you can find and read about the different pros and cons of the Google-Doubleclick deal focusing on impact on customer base, technology, products (bundling), competition, strategy, innovation, legal and pricing.

There is also a short overview of the key eMarketing trends as to embed the analysis some more.

[netsafire]

Google already has monopoly in online advertising in the form of AdWords and AdSense. I hope they don't create a monopoly in this field too.