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Google Plans To Sell Part of DoubleClick

Posted by Soulskill on from the look-we're-not-evil-see dept.

mudimba writes "Google has announced that they will be selling the search engine marketing branch of recently acquired company DoubleClick. Google's reason for the sale is that they do not want to appear to be giving preferential treatment in search rankings to DoubleClick customers. Tom Phillips, director of Google's integration with DoubleClick, said, 'Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google's mission and core to the trust we ask from our users.' Google was under scrutiny from the European Union and the FTC over their purchase of DoubleClick, but both eventually approved the deal."

8 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. In related news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google are also planning to cut hundreds of jobs at doubeclick

  2. they do not want to appear... by Daniel+Ellard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... to give preferential treatment.

    Given that the entire world is already divided between people who believe the conspiracy theories circulating about Google and people who love Google unconditionally, I doubt they really care too much about appearances -- people are going to think whatever they want.

    More likely this is to keep them out of court.

    --
    Disclaimer: I work for a company, but I don't speak for them.
    1. Re:they do not want to appear... by ajs · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Given that the entire world is already divided between people who believe the conspiracy theories circulating about Google and people who love Google unconditionally, I wonder how I and just about everyone I know ended up not being in either of those camps....

      Google has three things going for them:

      1. They have technically sophisticated folks (not just someone who has worked with computers for a few years) in executive management.

      2. They made a point of scooping up the best and the brightest at a time that they could afford it.

      3. They have the phrase "do no evil," and a clear, financial explanation of what that means in their S1.

      Most people think that point number 3 is just PR. It's not. What it is is lawsuit insurance. Every other public company in the world is required to do everything that they can possibly describe as "not quite illegal" to enhance shareholder value. Google's shareholders, on the other hand were warned up-front and in SEC filings that they can't expect that, and that shields Google from reprisals when they don't do something because they don't like where it's going (e.g. when the DoJ asks them to turn over search records and say, "but Yahoo! and MSN were only too happy to comply!")

      It doesn't mean that they're not evil. It just means that, unlike everyone else, they're not required to be.

      I don't love Google. However, I don't see any reason to fear-monger over them, which is what I see on Slashdot all too often.

  3. Which part are they selling? by cliffiecee · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope it's the evil part.

    1. Re:Which part are they selling? by CarAnalogy · · Score: 4, Funny

      They'll sell one of the clicks, after which it will be renamed SingleClick. They might get Amazon on the phone for that, though...

  4. Re:What does DoubleClick do? by Jellybob · · Score: 4, Informative

    Their main business model is selling ad space on people's websites - find advertisers can be incredibly hard work, so a lot of sites outsource that to Double Click.

    They then sell the advertising space, and provide web apps that allow the advertisers to see how effective the campaign is, and site owners to see who's buying their ad space, and how much they're paying.

    That's also the reason there was so much scrutiny of this deal, since the largest banner advertising company has now been bought by the largest text advertising company.

  5. Re:effective marketing by encoderer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of COURSE it's about money, but that doesn't mean it's not ALSO about morality!

    The bean counters create a probability curve to estimate how much revenue they could lose if the perception were to become that GOOG is manipulating their results and giving preference to the customers paying DC for search engine marketing.

    That is, how much would they lose by looking amoral.

    Subtract that from the projected revenue from that DC unit.

    If the number is negative on most points in the probability curve, then it's a no-brainer.

    But even if it's in the "barely positive" territory, say, less than $10MM a year, I could still see an enlightened manager, thinking of that motto, making the decision to forgo that marginal revenue to maintain brand cachet that is difficult to value but that could be negatively impacted by the perception of conflict of interest.

    So, certainly, it's an issue about money. But that doesn't preclude accounting for the morality of it.

  6. Finally! I'm through the.... by Eth1csGrad1ent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...

    and can now preview this comment...

    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...

    and post it.

    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...

    Nope.

    Apparently I need to put more text here to beat the postercompression filter. So here goes: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Phasellus non erat eu dui dignissim dictum. Integer iaculis nulla at nisl. Proin ut enim non ipsum varius laoreet. Integer feugiat, ante fringilla blandit convallis, leo sapien egestas velit, non condimentum nulla sem vitae risus. Mauris aliquam auctor quam. Sed ac enim. Donec mattis dui id ligula. Integer vel sem eget ante cursus tristique. Nullam vel orci vitae sem interdum placerat. In eget lectus. Donec blandit. Quisque lacus urna, malesuada vel, mollis sit amet, rutrum nec, est. Proin blandit ornare nibh. Duis et felis.

    Done :)