4/14/2007

Google buys ad firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion

I recently read an article about Google acquiring DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash. According to the article this purchase is Googles largest purchase yet, which far surpasses its previous largest purchase of the online video company YouTube for $1.65 billion. Googles stock price recently closed at $466.29/share. According to the article Google is planning to pursue acquiring several other companies. My question is; is there any end in sight for Google? They seem to be everywhere and known by everyone. Similar to Wal-Mart, Google has grown so large that I wonder if they will be able to sustain the growth and momentum they have created? What do you think? Do you think that management will be able to create ways of sustaining and maintaining the growth? Do you think that it is possible for a company to become so large that they can no longer sustain or maintain their operations?

3 comments:

Patrick said...

I think they will continue to acquire companies or grow. Who is going to protest against it? Who doesn't want to work for, be a part of, or have stock in Google? I would love to. They know how to run a business and they know how to treat employees. While Wal-Mart is a giant, I don't exactly think they are comparable to Google. Their line of businss may change over time, but I see a good future ahead for Google.

Jessica said...

I think that it is possible for a company to continue to grow at high rates for a long time depending on how well the management is organized and how well the company handles internal issuses. However, I think that the growth rate will begin to decline with time. Companies cannot hold on to 30% growth when they are at $10 billion in sales. In the specific case of Google, I think that they will continue to grow, because they are very good at what they do. They will be around for a long time, but the growth rate will drop somewhat.

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Jacob for a spelling error.

If you admire Google, you should be worried about moves like this.

Reason # 1 is that everyone else passed on DoubleClick. Just because you buy something, that doesn't make it a good thing. Particularly if you bought something that other folks didn't.

Reason # 2 is that Google somehow thought investing this money in DoubleClick was a better way to spend their money than to invest on something they developed in-house. Does this mean that Google doesn't have enough good ideas anymore? It might.