Ad non Sense. Net

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you probably know DoubleClick is being acquired by Google. As PPC search advertisers, either at agencies or as independent marketers, the deal presents opportunities as well as potential conflicts of interest between advertisers and agencies. In this two-part column, I’ll focus on the vision behind the deal: both the expressed vision of the players, and likely additional motivations behind the deal. I’ll share my perspective about the astonishing price of $3.1 billion.

A big factor driving the deal price was the DoubleClick Media Exchange, built on top of DFP (Dart for Publishers). DoubleClick had announced this media exchange publicly just a days before the acquisition announcement, but industry insiders had been aware of it for some time. The media exchange, powered by DFP, allows top-tier publishers to opt in to the new platform simply by checking a box. DoubleClick and Google, Part 1: The Vision