Two weeks of rumor and speculation that have reverberated through the interactive marketing industry were concluded today with the announcement that Google will buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

The acquisition, the biggest in Google's history, heralds a huge consolidation of power in the online marketing industry, combining the largest search engine with an original and still biggest ad management firm.

“DoubleClick’s technology is widely adopted by leading advertisers, publishers and agencies, and the combination of the two companies will accelerate the adoption of Google’s innovative advances in display advertising,” said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google in a company statement.

Full article: clickz.com