Last week, bigmouthmedia reported on Microsoft's intention to acquire internet marketing company, DoubleClick. This week, it appears that another bidder has entered the race to buy the firm - and it will come as no surprise to learn that the new bidder is Google.The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has now joined in the chasing pack for the company, which carries a price tag of at least $2 billion. It is also understood that the other members of the 'big three', Yahoo! and Time Warner's AOL, have also held talks with DoubleClick - but the high asking price is likely to see AOL drop out of the race.
Google doesn't accept third-party ad tags and the news of Google entering the race for DoubleClick also comes on the back of rumours that the world's leading search engine were planning to build its own third-party ad server for graphical ads. This would rival the similar service provided by DoubleClick, which serves graphical ads to a large portion of the online advertising world.
Google's AdWords service is currently only available to publishers that sign up for the Google Network, AdSense. A move into DoubleClick's world would allow the search giant to not only offer conversion tracking, but to do so in a cross-platform fashion. According to Jeff Molander, a performance marketing specialist, the move would also strengthen Google's hand with regard to its targeted ads, as Google could cross-reference its search-based targeting with an ad-delivery network - a feature that Molander claims DoubleClick are unable to provide.
Google's entry into the race for DoubleClick is sure to infuriate AOL, who recently saw a $900 million bid for Swedish web advertising company TradeDoubler fall through after they failed to secure enough shares before the deadline. It could also mean that the gulf between Google and its most important rivals could widen even further, as it is believed that a Microsoft acquisition of DoubleClick might have enabled their MSN search engine to compete more directly with its main rivals, Google and Yahoo!.
But, if Google does purchase DoubleClick, it will give them an even tighter stranglehold on the world of online advertising - something that many publishers might not want to see happen.
While Google can certainly afford the mooted $2 billion asking price for the purchase of DoubleClick, it remains to be seen just how committed Microsoft are in their own pursuit of the company. They will now need to up the ante further if they are to succeed in snatching DoubleClick away from Google.
