Ad Wars: Google's Green Light

The official marriage of search- and display-ad titans Google and DoubleClick may take a while to pay off, but it deals a blow to Microsoft now The long-awaited completion of Google's $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick will kick off a new online advertising battle that may rage for years to come. Yet it may also take years for the search giant to gain a foothold in what's shaping up as the next front in the $20 billion online ad industry: the resurgence of display ads, those colorful but oft-ignored "banners" and videos that run along the tops and sides of Web pages. On Mar. 11 the European Commission blessed the deal with no restrictions despite opposition from rivals and privacy advocates worried about one company having too much data about people's online activities. The green light from the European Union's executive... [read full story]