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Microsoft to Buy DoubleClick?
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Mar 28, 2007 04:06 PM
from the double-or-nuthin dept.
from the double-or-nuthin dept.
roscoetoon writes to tell us Bloomberg is reporting that Microsoft is in talks to buy DoubleClick. Seen as a move to compete against the Google advertising engine Double Click owners Hellman & Friedman are seeking a $2 billion payday. "The purchase would give Microsoft tools to battle Google Inc. for ads that appear on Web sites. DoubleClick works with advertisers to create online campaigns, such as streaming video clips to promote New Line Cinema's movie "The Number 23." The New York-based company's Dart technology monitors the performance of Internet ads for marketing companies."
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[+]
Google In Bidding To Buy DoubleClick 120 comments
A number of readers clued us to the latest development in the saga of te sale of DoubleClick: Google has thrown its hat into the ring against Microsoft and (reportedly) Yahoo and AOL. Most of the stories quote a Wall Street Journal piece that is only available to subscribers. Google's entry into the bidding may boost the price for the remaining pieces of DoubleClick (parts of the company having already been sold off) to $2 billion, twice what its current owners paid for the whole thing. Some reports speculate that this figure could give Microsoft pause.
[+]
Google buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion 351 comments
marvinalone writes "The New York Times reports that Google has purchased DoubleClick. That seems to be the conclusion to the speculation we've talked about earlier. From the article: 'Google reached an agreement today to acquire DoubleClick, the online advertising company, from two private equity firms for $3.1 billion in cash, the companies announced, an amount that was almost double the $1.65 billion in stock that Google paid for YouTube late last year.'"
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Micosoft? (Score:3, Informative)
Micosoft.com is under construction (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.a4fs.net/blog/)
I can't wait!
Re:Micosoft? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Micosoft? (Score:4, Funny)
(http://wakaba.c3.cx/)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=174297&thresh
Re:Micosoft? (Score:4, Funny)
Valuations (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.a4fs.net/blog/)
DoubleClick = 2?
Your thoughts?
Internet Bubble Mk.II (Score:4, Insightful)
Like last time, eventually investors will panic when they contemplate the very expensive pile of hot air they will have accumulated, and yet again the bubble will burst dramatically, sucking up billions of dollars that could have been invested in companies that actually make something and / or actually provide a service, and causing another European and North American recession.
Meanwhile, I'm investing all of my money in tulip bulbs.
Re:Valuations (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.grub.net/blog/index.html | Last Journal: Wednesday June 27, @08:48AM)
Youtube = 1.6 billion DoubleClick = 2? Your thoughts?
My copies of AdBlock don't block YouTube.
Re:Valuations (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://nickstallman.net/)
I wonder if Doubleclick would get the prize for being the most blocked internet domain.
Just one more reason for people to hate MS (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just one more reason for people to hate MS (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously, who doesn't filter DoubleClick? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://skippus.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday June 19 2005, @07:25AM)
If you use Firefox, snag Adblock Plus [mozilla.org] and the Filterset.G Updater [mozilla.org]. If you're using Internet Destr-- Er, I mean Internet Explorer, woe is you, but at least snag the Google Toolbar [google.com], which I think blocks DoubleClick ads.
Re:Seriously, who doesn't filter DoubleClick? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://randomcoolzip.blogspot.com/)
Re:Seriously, who doesn't filter DoubleClick? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://ziz.org/~ziz/)
Re:Seriously, who doesn't filter DoubleClick? (Score:5, Interesting)
To back up all the way to the beginning, a couple of years ago, I got a call from a recruiter about a job with a small local company that was writing some software that would allow people to track advertising campaigns. I interviewed, and felt rather ambivalent about them... they seemed like they were writing decent software, but I'm over the whole startup thing, and spending 80 hours in the office. They passed on me. At the time I was a little upset, even though I wasn't all that interested in them. As my neighbor put it, "It's like when the ugly girl doesn't want to dance with you."
A while later, I saw some of the guys who interviewed me walking around the building I worked in. I checked the building directory, but the company wasn't on the list. So I hit their website, and lo and behold, they'd been bought by Doubleclick.
Whew. Dodged a bullet. I mean, Doubleclick. Yikes. I'm past the point in my life where I can walk out of a job on principle without another job already lined up, and I'm still paranoid from the bust.
So I tell the recruiter all this, and I don't really mince words about my opinion concerning Doubleclick.
He submitted me anyway.
I got a call a couple days later from someone. It was outside normal business hours, and I normally don't answer numbers I don't recognize during my off time, but a good friend of mine was expecting the birth of his son any day, so I answered just in case. I was in a guitar shop at the time, and couldn't hear too well, but they were talking about the opportunity at Doubleclick. I assumed it was another recruiter, so I went into my whole spiel about my history with the other company, how glad I wasn't working for them when they were acquired, and how distasteful I found Doubleclick.
I guess there's really no suspense here. Naturally, the guy I was talking to was the hiring manager over at Doubleclick, and I had just unloaded on him. In fact, I do believe I mentioned being "glad I don't have that stain on my resume."
I felt pretty horrible. It was an accident, and I'm sure the poor guy didn't want to work at Doubleclick any more than I did. But still... in retrospect, it was pretty funny.
Even funnier was the fact that Doubleclick had an office in our building. When I told a coworker the story the following day, she pointed out that, undoubtedly, someone on the second floor was telling the exact same story :)
Re:Seriously, who doesn't filter DoubleClick? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just one more reason for people to hate MS (Score:5, Informative)
That said, I wonder what Microsoft could bring to DoubleClick. I'd hate to see Microsoft add various "stealth" techniques that other advertisers use, e.g., frequently rotating hostnames, formats, etc.
If customers are going to block your ads, at least make it easy. They're going to do it either way. The easier you make it, the more those people will remain on those websites, which at least brings you minimal value as an advertiser. When I worked in media, we typically gave clients two different sets of stats for this exact purpose. You don't disclose your traffic count based on your advertising banners/etc, instead you tell them your server stats traffic, which is always higher. Of course, you're selling impressions/clicks/referrals, so the advertiser doesn't actually care if the site users are blocking their ad as long as they get what they paid for. The website, of course, may or may not care, depending on who they are.
Execellent! One less advertiser... (Score:2)
Perfect match (Score:5, Funny)
(http://bill.herrin.us/)
Privacy Issues? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.inetwork-plus.com/)
What could only add to the mix would be Microsoft + Double Click + Homeland Security (and maybe throw AT&T into the mix as well)
Transporter_ii
MS should know when to give up (Score:5, Insightful)
Their roaring success: DOS + Windows was not achieved by taking away market share from others (ie. Apple etc), but by going into a new market. They used illegal means to get Office in place.
Whenever they have tried to eat into an existing market where they cannot leverage Windows they have failed miserably: Zune, MSN, .... Their aquisitions are much the same: hotmail...
Doubleclick is likely to end up on the junk pile too.
Where did you go yesterday? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nonsense (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.eruvia.org/)
Tried to eat into an existing market with Hotmail? Hotmail was the market - it's all the others that are the followers here. Some did it better of course, but MS were not trying to take away market share from others. They were trying to prevent losing users to web-based interfaces which they did not own.
Zune and MSN...yep, agreed. Doubleclick - different class. It's not an end-user product, and due to this I rather suspect they'll do well with it. MS do cater to developers and API users pretty well, and that's what you're talking about when it comes to an advert site. In the end it can only be good to have two vast firms competing for your site's space and offering you cash accordingly.
Well, good for the site creator of course. For me, I mutter a few words of gratitude for AdBlock and Pithhelmet and then carry on regardless.
Cheers,
Ian
follows the MS motto (Score:1, Insightful)
Feel free, MS... (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://mdm-adph.blogspot.com/)
like google (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://freedomsforums.com/)
Just what we need (Score:4, Funny)
Just so long... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://microsoft.toddverbeek.com/)
Let's see... (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.ucpa.org/)
Can msft "fix" the filtering? (Score:2)
I won't notice.... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Friday June 30 2006, @11:10PM)
DansGuardian Content Filter [dansguardian.org]
Domain Block of Ad-Servers [yoyo.org].
Nope...I won't notice at all.
This could be dangerous, actually (Score:3, Insightful)
Think operating systems, browser, and office "features" here, people. The features gather more and more information as time goes on. Its already been happening over the last 5-10 years so the trend is certainly in that direction. I mean, thus far, Mr. Softie has been pretty easy (all things considered) on how much data he sends back home but I am sure things could be configured differently to gather a whole new set of information. A much larger, complex, and more intrusive set of information. And then they can market based on that data (DoubleClick). Like Google, cept Google doesn't have an operating system sitting on every damn computer in the world.
It could get very very ugly. I can envision several nasty things that I would do and thats only thinking about it 5 min.
Access to customers (data) + Marketing/advertising = big revenues for the seller of marketing and advertising products. That's what we are talking about here -- selling ads.
Yawn (Score:2)
Re:Yawn (Score:4, Informative)
If you're using Windows and blocked Microsoft sites on your hosts file, Windows will ignore it and still connect to them [slashdot.org]. If they get DoubleClick, I wont be surprised if the same thing happens with their servers.
Ads on Web pages? (Score:2)
23! Ah-ah-ah... (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Wrong Half, M$ (Score:5, Insightful)
doubleclick ?? (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Friday August 20 2004, @12:38PM)
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
This is good! (Score:5, Funny)
This will be absolute nirvana! Why? Because they sure as hell won't put out those bullshit DRM infected formats for linux, and I will never have to see their ads again. I won't even have to install a plugin to avoid them. Oh happy day.
-Charlie
DoubleCluck the most blocked ad server? (Score:2)
Almost Had heart Attack (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Thursday July 17 2003, @07:42PM)
I thought it said, "Microsoft in Talks to by DoubleCrick"
Everybody know, DoubleCrick my company takeover target!
- Wun Hung Low
Shanghai
Like Yahoo and Overture. (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the age-old tale... (Score:1)
DoubleClick Double sold. (Score:1)
(http://www.jerryodom.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 29 2005, @01:31PM)
A while back Aprimo snatched up DoubleClick's Enterprise Marketing Solution parts. Aprimo is the top dog in their niche of Enterprise Marketing Management solutions.
Definitely some mad money being thrown around with the selling off of DoubleClick.