Re: Meh why bother....
2007 was very different to now. Google was unquestionably the dominant player in search already but its monetisation was well below that of today - Google shopping (Froogle at the time) was still little more than an afterthought and I believe that it was still a free service unlike today's PPC model.
In terms of the display ad game, Google was much less of a player back in 2007 as well. Buying doubleclick was their springboard into that space.
It's all very well saying that the doubleclick aquisition was obviously going to mess up competition but Display is still the paid search area that Google is weakest in and the most competition still exists. (I don't have stats to back that point up but search and shopping are both 90%+ so it would be hard for Google to be stronger in Display)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
