Google just bought Double Click for $3.1 billion, news which wasn’t received too well by the stock market - shares are trading down a buck-and-change a share. The all-cash deal is almost twice what Google paid for YouTube, the New York Times reports. The amount Google spent is shade under Google’s revenues in the fourth quarter of 2006 ($3.21 billion) and what the company earned in entire 2006. At the end of 2006, Google had $11.2 billion in cash.We are talking Big Money here!
One thing is for sure - Google wants to dominate the online advertising business, and will pay anything to keep rivals like Microsoft on a weak footing.It was rumored that Microsoft was considering a bid for DoubleClick for around $2 billion.