Google to buy DoubleClick for $3.1B

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 13 (UPI) -- Google Inc. said Friday it would buy New York Internet ad-services company DoubleClick Inc. from private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $3.1 billion.

The cash deal -- almost double the $1.65 billion in stock Google paid for YouTube last year -- is expected to close by the end of the year, Google said.

DoubleClick's technology displays ads on Web sites. It also helps Web sites and advertisers maximize the money they make, and monitors ad campaigns.

The company has been linked to "spyware" because its Internet browser cookies record what ads users view and select while on Web sites.

DoubleClick -- whose customers include Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and News Corp.'s social-networking site MySpace -- says its ad-serving tags are different from spyware.

Started in 1996, DoubleClick was a high-flying Web-advertising pioneer in its first five years, but struggled after the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.

Hellman bought it for $1.1 billion in 2005, later selling DoubleClick's e-mail marketing service and data-management unit and buying a video ad specialty company.

DoubleClick recently introduced a Nasdaq-like exchange for online ads that Chief Executive David Rosenblatt said would probably become DoubleClick's chief money maker within five years.