Google Ad Manager
March 15, 2008 – 5:58 pmGoogle has recently acquired online advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion dollars in cash. Google already has its AdSense which is generating them millions or even billions. So why the sudden interest on DoubleClick when they already have a similar product? And it wasn’t really a cheap acquisition.
DoubleClick is one of the top online advertising companies, and they have many connections in the industry with the leading corporates managing their advertisement networks. Also, having a variety of advertising solutions which worked really well and way better than the simple AdSense ads. Redoing all this work and establishing all these connections does come at a price tag: $3.1 billion dollars.
Closing the deal took sometime as competitors including Microsoft and Yahoo demanded more examination on the deal. Microsoft claimed that this acquisition would kill the competition in the online advertisement industry and will increase Google’s opportunities to collect personal information from online users. Microsoft, known for it’s similar role in the software industry, had a really weak argument in there and eventually the FTC approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick. The commission’s majority wrote in a sentence:
“After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition.”
Just after 2 weeks of taking over, Google relaunched DoubleClick in a new suit: Google Ad Manager, a smart move compared to their earlier acquisition of JotSpot; they needed 16 months to relaunch it, which I see as a waste of time and money.