Google Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion in cash from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management.

Published: 15 Apr 2007

Google Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion in cash from 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 monetisation services.

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of the year.

A release stated: “The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer superior tools for targeting, serving and analysing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers:

· For users, the combined company will deliver an improved experience on the web, by increasing the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see.

· For online publishers, the combination provides access to new advertisers, which creates a powerful opportunity to monetize their inventory more efficiently.

· For agencies and advertisers, Google and DoubleClick will provide an easy and efficient way to manage both search and display ads in one place. They will be able to optimise their ad spending across different online media using a common set of metrics.”

Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers, said Sergey Brin, Co-Founder and President, Google Technology.

According to media reports, the sale of DoubleClick involved weeks of negotiation that included at one point Yahoo, AOL and, most prominently, Microsoft, which has been trying to position itself as an advertising rival to Google. Even though Microsoft has more cash on hand than Google, the company was ultimately outbid.

“Keeping Microsoft away from DoubleClick is worth billions to Google,” an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, Jordan Rohan, reportedly said, according to nytimes.com. “Yet again, Microsoft is on the sidelines and away from the action.”

“Google really wants to get into the display advertising business in a big way, and they don’t have the relationships they need to make it happen,” reportedly said Dave Morgan, Chairman of Tacoda, an online advertising network. “But DoubleClick does. It gives them immediate access to those relationships.”