After Google announced the acquisition of DoubleClick on Friday, I immediately began thinking of the implications not just for the large competing ad networks, but for the smaller specialized ones focused on the hottest node of the Internet—blogs. Next to Google, the hottest ad network for blogs right now is Federated Media. The company reportedly had revenues of $4.5 million in 2006 and is on track to rake in $30 million in 2007.
So I asked Federated Media’s Chairman, John Battelle, what the new Google deal means for smaller players: “It depends on what they really intend to do with the company. Was DoubleClick a threat to those networks before? No, not really. It was in fact a partner. My guess is that's how Google will position the company, at least for now.” A rather optimistic take on the situation considering the amount of nervousness permeating the web since the announcement. In our next Google/DoubleClick update, we’ll examine all the nightmare scenarios being tossed about in an attempt to separate factoids from wild-eyed fictions.
