The EU has approved Google’s acquisition of display advertising giant Doubleclick in a move that will enlarge Google’s already huge advertising footprint. Google CEO Eric Schmidt notes at the Google blog:

DoubleClick gives Google the leading platform for display advertising, enabling us to rapidly bring advances to the market in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies.

Schmidt also alludes to the probability of layoffs from current DoubleClick staff saying “there may be reductions in headcount”, mostly in the USA. Presumably Google would be laying off DoubleClick rather than Google employees though that was not stated in the note.

Historically, online display advertising has arguably been far less effective than pay per click, although format changes and better reporting and tracking systems seem to have improved the prospects of the display ad – now a far cry from simple banner advertising sold at relatively high cost per thousand. These dominated internet publishing several years ago and often left advertisers unhappy with the performance of the campaigns.

A key issue with this acquisition will be the degree to which Google can leverage the Doubleclick display advertising empire to enhance Google’s overall dominance in the advertising space.

EU Press Release
Google’s Statement