Google DoubleClick Merger

The deal was given a clean chit by the regulators based on several factors

After the acquisition of DoubleClick -- a company that offers online ad-serving and management technology to advertisers, Web publishers, and ad agencies -- Google Chairman and CEO, Eric Schmidt, said, "We are thrilled that our acquisition of DoubleClick has closed. With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability, and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers, and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users." On the flip side, the merger will bring along a definite reduction in headcount -- in the US and in other regions as well, as Schmidt published on the Official Google Blog yesterday.

Googles Undersea Cable

Google said Monday that it was part of a six-company consortium that would build a new $300 million high-capacity underwater fiber-optic cable linking the United States and Japan.

Google is the only member of the consortium that is not a telecommunications company. When rumors of its participation in the project first surfaced last fall just as rumors of a Googlephone were spreading, they sparked speculation that Google, which joined a bid for wireless spectrum in the United States, had broad ambitions in the telecom area.

Google itself, however, is trying to preclude that speculation. The company is essentially confirming what The New York Times reported last fall when those rumors first spread: Google is joining the project to cut the high costs of sending massive amounts of search, video and application traffic around the world.