The market seems to think that VLCK will still get bought out, I agree, it’s just a sign of extreme consolidation happening.
CNN’s Paul La Monica has some good ideas, but it’s true that there are some private players as well, so it’s not like VLCK is all alone:
Google (GOOG) started off this merger frenzy in early April when it announced it was buying privately held DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. And Yahoo! (YHOO) followed suit later that month with a deal to purchase the remaining 80 percent in Right Media that it didn’t already own, for $680 million.Sure, maybe a company like Barry Diller’s IAC (IACI), which owns Ask.com, might decide that it now needs to become a player in the online ad network or online ad agency business.
Or maybe another traditional ad agency such as Omnicom (OMC) or Interpublic (IPG) might want to bolster their digital business like WPP has just done. In fact, another big Madison Avenue firm, Publicis (PUB) has also made a notable deal in the online marketing area, agreeing to buy interactive ad agency Digitas late last year.
But as I pointed out earlier this month, there are also several privately held online marketing firms, companies like Tribal Fusion and Burst Media, that could also be attractive, and would probably cost a lot less than ValueClick. Another hot privately held online ad company, Gorilla Nation, announced Friday that it was receiving more than $50 million in financing from private equity firm Great Hill Partners.
Crazy times. Crazy freaking times. Then again, the action is moving online, and no one wants to be left out.
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