Merger Mania

Lately, every day there has been some speculation and or news on a new online marketing firm being picked up for millions… or even BILLIONS of dollars. Now that Microsoft has just picked up aQuantive for $6 Billion, we have seen the BIG 3 all take on new ad companies in their heavy competition to take each other out. We even had some exciting rumors on Microsoft finally deciding to buy Yahoo, but this ended up not happening. Yahoo then went on to buy RightMedia for $680 million. Microsoft also was very interested in 24/7 Media, but then WPP Group (the world’s No. 2 advertising firm) went on to purchase 24/7 Media for $649 million! When Google had originally purchased DoubleClick for an amazing $3.1 billion, some said it was way overpriced and Google was insane. Now that Microsoft has purchased aQuantive for an even more insane $6 Billion… people are now saying Google got DoubleClick as a steal and Microsoft bought aQuantive through panicking.

Here’s a quick review of what’s been going on lately…

Here’s a quick list of the lonely ad firms that have yet to be picked up… with ValueClick being the main target of speculation on being picked up next. Many felt ValueClick was next to be picked up and that Microsoft would have been the company to do it. In comparison between aQuantive and ValueClick, their 2006 reveue numbers are nearly the same. (ValueClick 2006 Revenue: $545.6 M /Income: $62.6 M - aQuantive 2006 Revenue: $442.2 M / Income: $54.0 Million). Based on their numbers and the buyout craze, ValueClick could be valued for $6 BILLION+. While ValueClick is the only public company below, the other two are still industry leaders in advertising.

  • Posted in Business Deals, Stocks
14 pieces of wisdom given by ye faithful
  1. Wolf Stone said on May 19th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

    Great analysis Zac…so why hasnt ValueClick been sold yet?

    Reply
  2. Zac Johnson said on May 19th, 2007 at 6:54 pm

    Because I have so many ValueClick stock shares! haha :P

    Reply
  3. Jess said on May 19th, 2007 at 10:31 pm

    Wow, thanks for the review. That is so interesting…I wonder who will pick up ValueClick.

    Reply
  4. Matthew said on May 20th, 2007 at 1:45 pm

    lol of course thats it

    Reply
  5. Matthew said on May 20th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

    its crazy how much money is being spent

    are you gonna post about the ‘feedburner’ rumor?

    Reply
  6. Steve Yu said on May 20th, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    Just wait and see if Microsoft willing to waste another $6 billion on ValueClick

    Reply
  7. Steve Yu said on May 20th, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    then I suppose you will get much richer than before if ValueClick is taken by any of the big company. :-)

    Reply
  8. Wolf Stone said on May 21st, 2007 at 10:58 am

    “Shares (Of ValueClick) jumped 11% Monday after an 8% rally Friday that was spurred in large measure by Microsoft’s 6 billion plan to acquire aQuantive.” (The Street”) Zac, i hope you invested in Valueclick !!

    Reply
  9. Zac Johnson said on May 21st, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Haha, I just saw the news and stock price now. I unloaded some on friday at the $31 high,… still sitting on another 1000 shares! Someone will be buying ValueClick :)

    Reply
  10. Matthew said on May 21st, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    what did you buy them at?

    Reply
  11. Business Twins said on May 21st, 2007 at 9:58 pm

    You made a really good investment. I keep thinking back on the day when I told my parents to invest our whole families savings on google stock when it first went public. I was a sophomore in high school. I’m still mad that my parents didn’t listen to me.

    Reply
  12. Wolf Stone said on May 22nd, 2007 at 3:28 pm

    Hey Zac what do you think of “Akamai rival Limelight Networks priced its proposed initial public offering in hopes of raising as much as $198.7 million on Monday.”
    Good idea…bad idea??

    Reply
  13. Zac Johnson said on May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 pm

    I watched this stock for the longest time, starting around $2!… but I picked most of mine up atound $12 to $17 a share.

    Reply
  14. Zac Johnson said on May 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    I don’t follow Akamai or Limelight Networks much, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the buy outs of advertising networks continues for quite some time.

    Reply
Got some words of wisdom?

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Blog Sponsors
  • Motive Interactive
  • PPC Coach
  • Market Leverage
  • Market Leverage
  • NeverBlueAds
  • Revenue Street
  • Rextopia
  • Killer Landing Pages
  • Hydra Network
Recommended Moneymakers
Blog Sponsors

ss_blog_claim=5c7ddc316856504805948b85b9a4c7eb ss_blog_claim=5c7ddc316856504805948b85b9a4c7eb Ajax CommentLuv Enabled 46b4f29d897aff2954dd2453e4a97852