Google Buys Doubleclick for $3.1 Billion

Google has agreed to buy Doubleclick for $3.1 billion, one of many recent big purchases for Google, as they seek to expand their operations. Doubleclick is the major online advertiser which became one of the first businesses to appoint a Chief Privacy Officer, as a result questions arising from their own purchase of an offline target maketer. In early 2000 Doublclick bought an offline marketer, Abacus Direct. The company compiled information on consumers such as names and addresses, which Doubleclick planned on combining with information it had learned about consumers web surfing habits. There was an outcry, and Doubleclick dropped its plans.

Google is clearly trying to beef its advertising, which is a major source of income.

Randall Rothenberg, is quoted in the New York Times as saying: “You can dive deep into that data and say who were those people, where do they live, what were they doing when they looked at those ads? You can protect privacy and provide great insights for advertisers.”

The investigation began in February 2000 after the company announced plans to combine consumer information collected online with personally identifiable customer data from its newly merged subsidiary, Abacus Direct. The point of compiling such dossiers is to better target advertisements to consumers as they surf the Web.

The government agency issued a letter Monday to DoubleClick's lawyers notifying them of the investigation's end. The investigation was launched primarily to determine whether DoubleClick, in its collection of online consumer habits, or "clickstream data," merged sensitive information from its subsidiary in violation of its privacy policy.

"The issue that triggered the investigation was a report that they were planning to combine offline information from Abacus with their clickstream data. However, this never took place," said FTC spokesman Eric London. "As a result, there was no violation of their privacy policy."

Google Buys an Online Ad Firm for $3.1 Billion

By LOUISE STORY and MIGUEL HELFT

Google agreed to its largest acquisition yesterday, reaching a deal to purchase DoubleClick, the online advertising company, from two private equity firms for $3.1 billion in cash, almost double what it paid for YouTube last year. And perhaps just as important, the deal kept DoubleClick from the hands of Microsoft.

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