UPDATED: Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC has agreed to acquire online advertising giant DoubleClick
While Ryan said he could not comment on any restructuring of DoubleClick for $1.1 billion in cash.
JMI Equity, a San Diego-based venture capital firm that pumps money into
the software and business service sectors, will join Hellman & Friedman in
the deal.
Should the deal close in the third quarter as both parties expect,
DoubleClick CEO Kevin Ryan will step down to pursue other opportunities.
President David Rosenblatt will continue to oversee the TechSolutions
division as its CEO, with Brian Rainey continuing to helm the DataSolutions
division as CEO.
A new board of directors and chairman will be appointed post closing.
Ryan said on a conference call the deal is the culmination of DoubleClick’s
search to create “better value for shareholders.” He allowed that he and the
board of directors had discussed selling off all or parts of DoubleClick to
equity firms and technology partners since last October.
“We think this is the best step we could have taken,” Ryan said. “We think
that DoubleClick is going to enter a new phase here and it’s going to be a
great one.”
pursuant to the acquisition, he assured the public that the company’s
product roadmap would soldier on intact.
Hellman & Friedman is no stranger to advertising and marketing businesses.
The San Francisco firm, which has raised more than $8 billion and invested
in some 50 companies, helped BigShot Media and Young & Rubicam ratchet up
their businesses.
DoubleClick was no slouch either. In the late 1990s, the New York-based
outfit epitomized the glamour of the online advertising and marketing
segment, helping to place ads on Web sites for a profit.
The concern grew, expanding its offerings to include a number of marketing
targets, including search engines, affiliates, e-mail, database and
marketing resource management. The company also builds marketing analytics
tools to help clients measure channel performance.
Rivals 24/7 Real Media, L/90, Engage and ValueClick caught on to the promise
of riches and quickly moved in on the New York-based company’s turf, making
it harder for DoubleClick to thrive.
Techniques to sell ads for Web sites have also changed. For example, search
engine juggernaut Google today launched a limited
beta test that will let advertisers choose on which sites their contextually
targeted ads appear.
Google made this play to attract more branding-oriented advertisers and it
is likely to jolt the competition in the advertising space because
advertisers have desired such a feature. It also represents a business
departure: In the past, media sellers have said site targeting would be
technically difficult to implement.
DoubleClick stockholders will receive $8.50 in cash for each share of
DoubleClick stock, good for a 10.6 percent premium over the average closing
price of DoubleClick’s stock for the last month.
Equity Firm to Buy DoubleClick for $1.1B
