Internet content and interactive media M&A activity increased substantially in the second quarter 2007 compared to the previous year as Google acquired interactive advertising agency DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Excluding the Google-DoubleClick deal, Internet transaction value increased 44% (from $441 million to $634 million) while the number of deals increased 29% (from 17 to 22), reports merger and acquisition advisory firm Whitestone Communications, Inc.
“In DoubleClick, Google acquired a dominant presence in the one market in which it has been a laggard: the business of selling advertising banners, videos, and other display ads often intended more to promote brands than to generate immediate sales,” reports Baran Rosen, president of M&A advisory firm Whitestone Communications. “DoubleClick has relationships with virtually every major online publisher and more than half of the online ad agencies. Google, on the other hand, has made much of its billions by serving tiny text ads related to searches for relatively smaller businesses hoping for some kind of immediate interaction with a customer.”
Whitestone tracks media M&A activity for its annual reference, Who’s Buying Whom, the most comprehensive and detailed report on deals in the publishing, information and training fields.
Other Internet deals of significance in the second quarter included: CBS Corp. acquired Last fm for $280 million; Comcast Corp. purchased Fandango for $40 million; Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. acquired Jumpstart Automotive Media for $84 million; LivePerson, Inc. acquired Kasamba Inc. for $40 million; and Amazon.com acquired dpreview.com (U.K.) for $15 million.