Google to click with DoubleClick

Google Inc., announcing it’s biggest ever acquisition, said Friday it would be purchasing Web advertising tools provider DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion, in order to pace up its push into the graphic ad market by acquiring the software for creating and assessing Internet advertising campaigns.

The press release read, “The acquisition will combine DoubleClick's expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google's leading advertising platform and publisher monetization services.”

San Francisco-based private-equity firm, Hellman & Friedman had bought DoubleClick in 2005 for $1.1 billion. It stated that Goggle will be paying in cash.

With this acquisition Google will be pushed deeper into the Web display ad market, which till now was dominated by rival Yahoo! "The DoubleClick platform touches so many of the existing Google customers," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on a conference call. "It accelerates our entry into some of these markets by several years."

The provider of the most-popular search-engine says that the combination of the companies will benefit consumers as the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see, will be greatly enhanced.

Online publishers will gain an access to new advertisers who will be provided with an easy and efficient way to manage both search and display ads in one place.

"This transaction will strengthen our advertising network by expanding our access to publisher inventory and enabling us to serve the needs of a broader set of advertisers and ad agencies," said Tim Armstrong, Google's President, Advertising and Commerce, North America.

Following the announcement, shares of Mountain View, California-based Google fell $3.19 to $463.10 in extended Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Necessary regulatory approvals are being sought and the deal is expected to close by the end of this year.