Google Aquires DoubleClick

-As Google expands into more advertising mediums they get closer and closer to becoming the Advertising Agency of the future. The real question is who should be running scared, is it the advertisers who will be at the mercy of Google or media companies who will be begging for a share of the ad dollars?

Ending weeks of a bidding battle with Microsoft, Google reached an agreement to buy online advertising network DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash, the companies announced today.

The deal expands Google’s foothold in online advertising. The price is almost double the $1.65 billion Google paid for YouTube last year. DoubleClick, founded in 1996, provides display ads on Web sites. The deal gives Google access to DoubleClick’s relationships with Web publishers and advertisers. Perhaps equally important, it keeps them away from Microsoft.

In 2005, DoubleClick was taken private by two private equity firms, Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity, in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.

I've been following with great interest the discussions surrounding an online media marketplace, which Ebay and other companies are rumored to be building. If anyone has thoughts on how an online media marketplace would work let me know.

Future of YouTube and Google

On the Google Blog today they reveal more details on the Google Video & YouTube integration:

YouTube, as we've stated previously, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google, and will continue to operate separately. Google will support YouTube by providing access to search and monetization platforms and, when/where YouTube launches internationally, to international resources. YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the rest of the YouTube team will continue to innovate exciting new ways for people to "broadcast themselves."

It sounds like they will be allowing YouTube to grow on it's own just as they did with the Blogger acquisition a few years back, but the goal is clear. Include YouTube video in Google search results and find a way to show ads and monetize the traffic. In the same post Google refers to a new Adsense test with Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment where they will provide ad supported video content from Warner and Sony to a select group of web publishers for display on their websites.

It will be interesting to see what ad format dominates the video revolution. Will it be pre-roll, post-roll, small screen or something else?