Originally Published April 2007
Internet Acquisitions Highlights
Before October 9, 2006 Google’s acquisitions were of relatively small technology firms but then came their purchase of YouTube for $1.65 Billion and now Google has acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion. The new generation has purchased one of the original founders of internet advertising. Founded in 1996 Doubleclick was another high flying stock of the late 1990s who successfully managed to maneuver the bubble by mastering the business of display ads on websites. Google’s purchase of DoubleClick is a logical step for Google who has been trying to break into the display/banner ad space for some time now. DoubleClick gives Google a deep database of advertisers along with the assumption that they’ll be integrating DoubleClick’s display ads within Adsense – Google’s textual advertising service which allows websites to “syndicate” ads. Now with DoubleClick webmasters have another revenue stream within Adsense without having to use outside services such as Commission Junction.
In just 6 months Google has spent $4.96 Billion dollars on two leading internet players. These two acquisitions have been added to a very small list of internet M&As that have exceeded a billion dollars.
November 1998 AOL purchases Netscape $4.21 Billion News.com January 1999 @Home buys Excite $6.7 Billion News.com May 1999 Yahoo purchases Geocities $3.6 Billion News.com July 1999 Yahoo acquires Broadcast.com $5.7 Billion CNN July 1999 Disney acquires the remaining 57% of Infoseek $1.62 Billion CNN December 1999 AOL purchases Mapquest $1.1 Billion CNN January 2000 AOL purchases Time Warner $160 Billion Cnet, IHT, CNN, Wired March 2000 Verisign acquires Network Solutions $21 Billion CNN, News May 2000 Terra purchases Lycos $12.5 Billion SFgate.com October 2003 Yahoo acquires Overture $1.63 Billion PR, News.com October 2004 eBay acquires PayPal $1.5 Billion BetaNews March 2005 IAC/Interactive buys AskJeeve’s $1.85 Billion News.com September 2005 eBay purchases Skype $2.6 Billion PR, News.com October 2006 Google acquires YouTube $1.65 Billion PR, MSNBC, CNN April 2007 Google purchases DoubleClick $3.1 Billion NYT, PR
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