The primary reason for Google's willingness to spend this huge sum of money on this company is that the acquisition will allow Google to reach many new customers - people to whom it can display its advertisements. DoubleClick is a market leader in displaying image and rich media adverts across the internet. This expertise, when coupled with Google's knowledge of paid search and keyword advertising, will provide the world's favourite search engine with a very complete online advertising product.
Google co-founder and president Sergey Brin said that this move will help Google make online advertising more effective, less intrusive and more useful, stating:
"Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the internet more efficient for end users, advertisers and publishers."
Google has previously entered this market - displaying images, animations, video adverts etc. - with its content networks and through its Adsense technology. The content network is a list of websites, ranging from large internet portals to smaller internet forums, on which Google has been given permission to display their adverts. Google uses Adsense technology to pick which ads are displayed, keep track of how many times they have been displayed and form reports on the ad displays themselves.
You've probably noticed adverts with the caption "Ads by Google" over the internet - these are Google content advertisements. Previously, Google was not able to display these ads with the same range or variety as other established players in the field, and it's possible that the company expects the acquisition of DoubleClick to allow them to expand into this area.
Since the announcement of the acquisition, Google has faced accusations, particularly from Microsoft, that it is trying to dominate the online advertising market. Microsoft are thus calling for very close scrutiny of the buy on the grounds of competition and privacy concerns. The acquisition is unlikely to be blocked, and will instead be seen as "verticalization" - the expansion of Google into a more specific area of online advertising, rather than an attempt to spread itself out and monopolise the entire market.
Microsoft, Google's main rival in the run-up to the takeover, were ousted by Google's massive bid for DoubleClick. Moreover, the apparent stand-off between Google and Microsoft has received much attention in the media this year, and Google's purchase of DoubleClick is sure to fuel further speculation about the relationship between these two technology giants in blogs and forums across the web.
While the ad distribution network is the most significant part of the takeover, there are other parts of the DoubleClick inventory that may be of interest to Google.
DART Search, for instance, is a web based product that lets you set up, manage and track the performance of paid search (PPC) campaigns across multiple search engines. Google already has a product that can track the performance of PPC campaigns with Google Analytics, which provides a lot more data than DART Search reports. A combination of Google Analytics' depth of data and DART's ability to automatically set up and manage a PPC campaign would be very appealing to many paid search advertisers out there.
Additionally, there is a division of DoubleClick, called Performics, which runs as a Search Engine Marketing agency, running paid and natural search campaigns. If Google acquires this branch of DoubleClick, it will have serious problems with impartiality and transparency and it may be likely that Performics will have to part company with DoubleClick in the near future.
Google's acquisition of DoubleClick has not been finalised. The completion of the deal still depends on Google and DoubleClick's ability to close the transaction and whether industry regulators will take it on themselves to prevent execution of the deal. If the deal does go ahead, it will push Google even further ahead in the online advertising race - a development that is likely to have a staggering effect on the existing market.
