The deal turned out to be "a total game changer, a crucial
piece in the larger jigsaw puzzle Google put together," said Timothy
Armstrong.
Google owns the
world’s leading search engine, it operates the largest video-hosting service in
YouTube, and its popular web browser, email, map and meeting software is used
by billions of people.
But its financial
heft — the source of nearly all its enormous profits — is advertising. And
perhaps no day was more pivotal in transforming Google into a powerhouse across
the entire digital
advertising industry than April 13, 2007, when the company clinched a deal
to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
The deal turned
out to be “a total game changer, a crucial piece in the larger jigsaw puzzle
Google put together,” said Timothy Armstrong, a former Google executive who
championed the acquisition.
It has also turned
out to be a classic example of why a growing number of antitrust experts say
lawmakers need to broadly rethink how mergers are regulated when the buyer is a
tech company with strong and growing market power.
Google’s ad
business is now a focus of wide-ranging investigations by the Justice
Department and state attorneys general. The scrutiny includes whether the
company choked off competitors, or shortchanged advertisers and publishers, and
how it assembled its ad empire, including DoubleClick, an ad technology company
and marketplace.
The Justice
Department is expected to file an antitrust suit against Google by the end of
the month. It is unclear whether the case will be focused on the ad business,
or concentrate on renewed allegations that Google’s search algorithm gives
preference to its shopping and other commerce services and hobbles rivals.
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