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Microsoft's to take over Yahoo is in part responsible. Such a group would be a substantial competitor to Google for advertising revenues, the latter's main source of income.
Advertising has become a more sensitive subject since a ComScore report showed that the amount of people clicking on the adverts on Google's site fell year-on-year during January.
Google's latest quarterly figures confirmed that its spectacular revenue growth, while still strong, was slowing. This might reflect the fragile US economy, but it could also indicate that the internet is becoming a more mature part of the media landscape.
Occupying a unique position at the heart of this complex modern picture, Google relies in equal measure on the published content on the web that it points its users towards and the advertisers who fund its business, as well as that of many others on the net.
Google's US$3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick, which has just been completed 11 months after it was first unveiled, stands to reinforce the company's dominant position at the centre of the web.
The combined entity stands to usurp the traditional role of both advertising agencies and publishers, advising the former how best to spend their clients' money and the latter on more effective ways to attract their audience online.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said it would "dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users".
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No wonder the deal attracted scrutiny from competition regulators. Now it has been completed, some advisers believe the transaction will also affect the strategies of acquirers in both areas.
Interactive agencies
"There is an enormous amount of M&A activity in the digital advertising space," says Chris Williams, a partner at Cobalt Corporate Finance. "Advertising is essential for content producers to be paid. News Corp's purchase of MySpace was driven by advertising."
The large global agencies, such as UK listed WPP and Aegis, appear to be well-positioned to take advantage.
WPP estimates online media accounts for less than 10% of total advertising spending around the world. But digital-related income now makes up 23% of WPP's revenues. This is in part because of the company's long-term acquisition plans.
Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell aims to buy businesses in the "the faster-growing functional areas of marketing services, particularly direct, internet, interactive and market research". Last year, the company spent 579m [pounds sterling] on roughly 30 small acquisitions.
The largest saw US$649m spent on Nasdaq-quoted 24/7 Real Media, a digital marketing specialist that advises clients on how to make best use of search engines such as Google as well as other technologies.
Rival Publicis, which owns Saatchi & Saatchi, completed its purchase of Nasdaq listed Digitas, another interactive agency, for US$1.3bn early...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
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