• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 16, 2007

Google's acquisition of DoubleClick from private equity firms Hellman & Friedman LLC and JMI Equity marks another surprising chapter in one of Madison Avenue's most circuitous equity stories. DoubleClick, which was formed in 1996 as a spin-off from Poppe Tyson, an industrial advertising unit of Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, has grown and seen its equity value prosper through spin-offs, mergers, public offerings, a dot-com bust, a leveraged buy-out and yet another sale that have enabled it to overshadow the ad agencies that originally spawned it.

The names Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt--once one of Madison Avenue's greatest agencies--and its Poppe Tyson unit have faded into distant memories, but DoubleClick has grown to dominate the field of online ad serving, as well as rich media production, ultimately amassing a market value of $3.1 billion. That's a nearly 78-fold increase from the roughly $40 million its progenitors reaped when they spun it off as a public offering in 1998.

Here is a brief history of some of America's greatest ad agencies, and the Internet assets they gave life to.

1873: Foote, Cone & Belding founded as one of America's first advertising agencies. One of its founders, Fairfax Cone, states: "Good advertising is always written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone."

1921: Bozell and Jacobs launched. Lands Boy's Town account. Pens classic "He Ain't Heavy" copy line.

1929: Otis Kenyon and Henry Eckhardt form ad agency Kenyon & Eckhardt. Early accounts include Kellogg Co., Quaker State Oil, and Ford's Lincoln-Mercury division.

1986: Bozell & Jacobs merges with Kenyon & Eckhardt.

1987: Modem Media founded.

1993: Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt's B-to-B and industrial shop Poppe Tyson acquires Silicon Valley ad agency Carlick Advertising, and begins to reposition itself as a pioneer in the field of Internet advertising.

1994: Foote, Cone & Belding restructures its parent operations as True North Communications.

1995: Poppe Tyson forms DoubleClick as a division of its company.

1995: Kevin O'Connor and Dwight Merriman form Web technology developer Internet Advertising Network.

1996: Poppe Tyson spins off DoubleClick and it merges with the Internet Advertising Network under the DoubleClick brand.

1996: True North Communications acquires Modem Media.

1997: True North Communications, the parent of Foote, Cone & Belding, acquires Bozell. Bozell's interactive division, Poppe Tyson, is combined with FCB's Modem Media to form Modem Media.

1998: DoubleClick goes public, selling 3.5 million shares worth 20% of the company's equity at $17 a share. Shares rise to $31.75 during its first day of trading on Nasdaq, but close at $26.75--giving DoubleClick a market capitalization of nearly half a billion dollars.

1998: True North Communications acquires Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, blocking a hostile takeover attempt by French-owned agency holding company Publicis.

1999: Modem Media is spun off from Interpublic into a separate publicly traded company on Nasdaq.

2001: The Interpublic Group acquires True North.

2003: Interpublic sells off its remaining stake in Modem Media.

2004: Digitas acquires Modem Media in a stock-for-stock deal valued at $200 million.

2005: DoubleClick sold to private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.

January 2007: Publicis acquires Digitas for $1.3 billion.

April 2007: Google acquires DoubleClick from Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management for $3.1 billion.