One of our messages to policymakers is that there has already been significant consolidation in the online targeted ad market. Once Google swallows Doubleclick, what little hope for any meaningful competition will disappear. So we think it’s useful to remind regulators about Doubleclick’s take-over—just last year–of online ad firm Klipmart. As clickz reported in June 2006:
“DoubleClick has acquired video ad specialist Klipmart, and will combine the company’s technology and services with its own DART Motif rich media platform.
The deal, for which terms were not disclosed, brings DoubleClick a step closer to legitimacy as an end-to-end solution for rich media advertising, particularly since Klipmart ranks among the more sophisticated providers of video production services, an area where Motif is historically weak.
Meanwhile, Klipmart should benefit from DoubleClick’s democratic appeal to marketers, who for budgetary reasons may previously have shied away from the video vendor’s reputation for high-end deployments.
With the acquisition, DoubleClick now employs 100 in rich media. In its announcement, the company said it will soon launch an “Innovation Lab” focused on taking video to multiple digital platforms…
Klipmart is known for creating smooth user experiences for in-stream and in-page video ads, and for providing good customer service to agencies and advertisers. The company pioneered full-screen expansion of video ads, and publishes all video in multiple codecs to maximize the addressable audience.
“Klipmart has a superb reputation of creative video innovation and service,” said David Rosenblatt, CEO of DoubleClick, in a statement. “Combining these strengths with DoubleClick’s industry leadership, insight and global ad management platform will truly accelerate industry innovation in digital video and emerging advertising formats.”
