Google Closes the Deal to Acquire DoubleClick

It’s finally official. “We completed our acquisition of DoubleClick,” said Eric Schmidt on the Google Blog. There’s a sigh of relief in the Googledom after almost a year of waiting for approval. The US approved the deal last year, and the EU just concluded the merger is unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers and would not impede competition within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Google doesn’t have a plan to integrate the two companies yet, but hopes to complete that process in the US in early April. Outside the US, it will take a little longer as decisions must be coordinated with employee unions and must also conform to local law.

There Could Be layoffs

Schmidt said, “…there may be reductions in headcount” in the US and possibly other regions, but Google will do its best to keep staff reductions at a minimum.

CNN Money says Google will be big in display ads in ‘08 and ‘09 with the huge potential for display ads on YouTube.

Google believes the combination of its ad network and DoubleClick’s display ad serving products will help publishers and advertisers generate more revenue while providing a better online experience for users.

Source: Techmeme