On trigger happy fingers
Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick seems to have been the trigger of a lot of acquisition activity (Microsoft-Acquantive, WPP for 247/ Real Media, Yahoo for Right Media, AOL for AdTech). It seems like the prices are getting really rich (and I’m an apologist for eBay-Skype and Google-YouTube). Of course there is a fair amount of strategy behind each deal, one can at least hope, but the strategic rationales for the high prices Microsoft and WPP paid aren’t obvious to me.