engine - 3:36 pm on Mar 12, 2008 (gmt 0)

There have been other unwelcome metrics for Google recently. IDC reported that Google's share of the U.S. Internet advertising market dropped slightly in 2007 from the year before. Although hardly catastrophic, reports like that are nonetheless uncharacteristic for Google and raise eyebrows when measured against its stellar performance over the past five years. Adding to the sense of urgency is that, while Google was waiting patiently for the DoubleClick acquisition to clear regulatory hurdles, competitors like Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL were busy snapping up digital marketing companies and beefing up their capabilities to take advantage of the growing online ad market. That's why the closing of the DoubleClick acquisition arrives at a particularly interesting time for Google, especially since DoubleClick is expected to boost Google's anemic display advertising business and thus allow the company to add some diversification to its revenue stream. Probably sensing this, Wall Street on Tuesday rewarded Google with a 6.3 percent boost to its stock price, which closed at $439.84.

DoubleClick Deal Good Timing For Google [pcworld.com]