There are ways in which Digg is like YouTube: it's the "brand" in a competitive "social news" segment that also features Yahoo Buzz, AOL's Propeller, MySpace News, Reddit, Ask Big News and, by some counts, more than 80 others. Similarly, YouTube was the "brand" in a crowded video segment when Google acquired the company. Digg has more or less been for sale for months and rumors have been circulating that either Google or Microsoft would buy the company. Now TechCrunch is reporting that Digg is close to selling for $200 million to Google. That compares with the originally rumored $300 millio [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Acquisitions | Search Engines: Digg

Google announced that it had acquired "Begun," a Russian contextual ad service, for $140 million. The service had been a unit of Russia's Rambler Media. Rambler also owns the Russian portal Rambler.ru. As part of the deal, Google-enhanced search results and ads will appear on the Rambler portal site. According to Reuters, Rambler expects annual growth of online ad revenues to be 50 and to reach $1 billion by 2010. The acquisition makes sense given that there's more growth opportunity now in non-US markets. International revenues now make up just over 50 percent of total ad revenues. From Go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions

Many people have posed the question: why does Google seem to often fail to efficiently integrate or develop companies and properties it has acquired? Early mobile social network DodgeBall is the most obvious example of a promising startup acquired by Google that has languished. But as TechCrunchIT points out, there are others and, more specifically, often a long delay between the time of a company's acquisition and its "re-emergence" with a Google identity. Citing YouTube as an exception to such integration delays, the TechCrunch post speculates that it's because the acquired company's engin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions

Last month, I did an open letter to Google wishing they'd quickly sell off Performics, to avoid the conflict of having a search marketing firm that works to improve results on Google's own search engine. Well, thank you Google! They've acted far more quickly than I would have hoped for, announcing today that the company will be splitting Performics into two separate companies (affiliate marketing and search marketing) and selling the search marketing business off. Now to see if Microsoft will do the right thing and make a similar move with Avenue A/Razorfish, as I covered in my open letter an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Acquisitions | Google: AdSense | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: DoubleClick | Google: General | Google: SEO

At long last, Google owns DoubleClick. In doing so, the company has done something else that many people would have never believed possible. Become an SEO. That's right -- Google's in the SEO business now, selling services through DoubleClick's Performics to people who want to rank well on -- um -- Google. Conflict of interest? You bet. And worse from an image perspective, the purchase puts Google in the paid inclusion business, something it dissed as evil back in 2004, when it went public. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with Performics as a company and have good friends that [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: SEO

With the EU's blessing, Google has finally acquired DoubleClick after nearly a year in trying. Google has blogged that the acquisition has been completed, with CEO Eric Schmidt saying: Integration work can now begin, with detailed plans to come   There may be a "reduction in headcount" as Google matches DoubleClick employees to the existing Google business structure, a task expected to conclude by early April   Google now feels it can offer better display ad options to customers asking for this   Google feels that the combination will mean more relevant display ads t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Business Issues | Google: DoubleClick

The European Commission has approved the Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, valued at $3.1 billion. The EU started their investigation in November 2007. The commission found that the "transaction would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers, either in ad serving or in intermediation in online advertising markets." This is excellent news for Google, and as you can see, GOOG stock has seen an increase based on the news. There is more coverage on the EU news at Techmeme. You can also find our past coverage of the Google-DoubleClick acquisition in our Google acquisitions archives [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Business Issues | Google: Outside US

Display advertising currently represents about 32 percent of total US online advertising, according to the IAB. That's roughly $6.7 billion. Google already dominates the roughly $8.5 billion US search market. But Google's Tim Armstrong told the Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Florida yesterday that Google expects, in the not-too-distant future, to have a "very significant" position in online display advertising, and if the company didn't achieve that he would be "very disappointed." Armstrong added, according to Dow Jones, that Google's platform "will evolve over time so that it [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Business Issues | Google: YouTube & Video

The Quintura Blog repeats a rumor that Google may be poised to buy the Ukrainian portal Bigmir.net, the leading Ukrainian destination site with 2.5 million users. Quintura speculates the deal might be worth $100 million and says online advertising in the Ukraine was worth an estimated $12 million in 2007. If it were true, Google would likely displace Russian search engine Yandex, which currently provides results for Bigmir. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions

Wired says that Google is rumored to be buying Plaxo for roughly $200 million. The company was founded in 2001 as a tool to manage contacts and users' email address books ("your address book for life"). Its aggressive customer acquisition strategy (read: spam) alienated many would-be users. Plaxo has been more restrained in the recent past and has tried to reinvent itself as a social network with the launch of Pulse last summer. If the rumor is true, Google would likely integrate Plaxo functionality into its Docs suite of applications aimed at enterprise users. By contrast, Pulse could be j [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Acquisitions | Search Engines: Social Search Engines

Much of the discussion and debate in the U.S. over Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick was about the impact of the deal on consumer privacy, even though that wasn't technically part of the anti-trust analysis before the FTC. Accordingly, the FTC approved the acquisition with one commissioner dissenting largely on privacy grounds. Now, Pamela Jones Harbour, the FTC commissioner who dissented, will testify before the European Parliament committee on civil liberties about her concerns and rationale. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, will als [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Critics | Legal: General | Legal: Privacy

The US Federal Trade Commission has granted its approval for Google to purchase DoubleClick. Google has a press release up with the news (and see also here), and the FTC announcement is here. The many parties have raised privacy issues with the deal, and the FTC noted this was not germane to its approval: Although interested parties have raised concerns about the proposed acquisition’s impact on consumer privacy, the Commission observed that such issues are "not unique to Google and DoubleClick," and "extend to the entire online advertising marketplace." The Commissioners further wrote th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions

Despite the fact that regulators are supposed to scrutinize the potential anti-competitive dimensions of the pending acquisition of DoubleClick by Google, privacy has sneaked into the debate as a major issue on both sides of the Atlantic. It almost threatens to overshadow the antitrust considerations, which are the heart and purpose of the regulatory review process. Indeed, privacy isn't even relevant to the FTC's analysis. In Europe the discretion of regulators may well be broader, allowing them to consider a wider range of issues than simply the impact on competition in the market for onli [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Outside US | Legal: General | Legal: Privacy

The relevant issues swirling around the pending acquisition of DoubleClick by Google are little understood by the public, pundits, and even, it would seem, by Congress and the regulators charged with approving or disapproving the deal. Danny has written at length about the competitive implications of the deal. But privacy concerns have gotten mixed up in the discussion. What's very clear, however, is that privacy is not relevant to the anti-trust considerations before the FTC. (Privacy is an important debate, but not immediately relevant to the legal issues before the committee.) There are a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Critics | Legal: Privacy

Yesterday, Danny wrote a lengthy piece dispelling some of the myths and misinformation surrounding the pending Google acquisition of DoubleClick. Today CNET has two articles, one on the EU decision to apply more scrutiny to the proposed deal, as we expected, and another on privacy advocates' concerns about the acquisition and the appropriate legal standards involved in the regulatory review process. The first CNET piece explores and contrasts the review process in the US and EU and discusses some of the legal standards and anti-trust rules being brought to bear on the potential transaction. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions | Legal: General | Legal: Privacy

Today, US senators Herb Kohl and Orrin Hatch published a letter (PDF) urging the US Federal Trade Commission to carefully consider the proposed Google-DoubleClick deal. Sure, who doesn't agree with a careful review? But sadly, the letter gets a lot of things wrong, which is alarming coming out of the US Senate. Or perhaps predictable. So let's go through it, blow-by-blow. Maybe the senators will be reading.... The letter starts out: Our Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights held a hearing on this proposed transaction and the on-going consolidation in the I [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display | Google: Acquisitions | Google: AdSense | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics

Senators Urge FTC To Review Google-DoubleClick Deal Closely from SmartMoney reports Senators Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) have urged the Federal Trade Commission to closely review the details and implications of Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. In a letter written by the Senators to the FTC, they wrote: The implications of this for the Internet advertising market - and for the Internet as a whole - are profound and potentially far reaching. The senators did not take a firm position on if they approve or disapprove of the deal, but they did say they had many ques [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions

EU to probe Google/DoubleClick plan from Reuters reports the European Commission has decided to conduct a four-month review of the Google/DoubleClick deal. European Union said "the Commission's initial market investigation indicated that the proposed merger would raise competition concerns in the markets for intermediation and ad serving in online advertising." Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, said he is disappointed in the EU's decision and "further delays that might put us at a disadvantage in competing fully against Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and others." You can follow our past coverage of the G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions

A TMCnet blog repeats a rumor that Google might buy US wireless carrier Sprint. This is based in part of Google's aggressive push into mobile with Android, its willingness to bid on wireless spectrum licenses, and its efforts to gain access to unused parts of the television spectrum, so-called "white space." It's also based on Sprint's recent financial troubles. Sprint's market capitalization is $46 billion, near its 52-week low. Price, however, isn't the big deterrent to Google's potential acquisition of Sprint. This speculation is very much akin to rumors that Google might buy a print news [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Acquisitions | Google: Mobile

Australia regulator clears Google-DoubleClick deal from Reuters reports the Australian competition regulator will allow the Google acquisition of DoubleClick. The commission said on Tuesday that Google and DoubleClick were not close competitors in the ad serving space. Now Google has to hear decisions from Europe and America. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Acquisitions