• by April 25, 2005

The waiting is over. (Not that it took so long - DoubleClick has been on the block for only five months). San Francisco-based buyout firm Hellman & Friedman is buying the Internet ad services company for nearly $1.1 billion. JMI Equity Fund is a minority investor.

It looks like stockholders will get $8.50 for each share of DoubleClick common stock. That's 10.6 percent over the stock's average closing price in the last month. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter and Kevin Ryan, the company's CEO, will depart. Once the deal closes, David Rosenblatt will stay on to manage the company's TechSolutions division as its CEO; Brian Rainey will continue to lead the DataSolutions division as its CEO.

Meanwhile, a new Merrill Lynch report confirms what we already know  it's a good time to be online. Marketing and media budgets aren't increasing so quickly, and that is one of the reasons advertisers are shifting to the Web and cable where Merrill notes that "the return is fairly high and/or better than some traditional mediums."

In addition, the report notes that the TV upfront season is likely to be "tepid." We surely will find out more about that on Thursday as MediaPost Editor-in-Chief Joe Mandese hosts the "Outfront," a confab of oracles who will prognosticate on what the upfronts will bring.

For its part, Merrill says that national advertisers are most likely to be conservative, but foreign car manufacturers, pharmaceutical advertisers, and the entertainment sector will produce anywhere from a 0 to 5 percent gain in upfront dollars. Advertisers will also make more online media buys if they can demonstrate to senior management how the online program fits within an overall campaign. Integration is key. And get this: Blogging and viral marketing are starting to affect offline marketing budgets, according to the report.

Also, the Web's ability to personalize messages is coming into play. On-demand services including RSS, blogs, and social networks are critical to Web marketing efforts. Merrill cites an observation by MSN's chief marketing officer, Joanne Bradford, that marketers need to figure out how to be "invited" in by users. That's a whole different ballgame than the traditional TV advertising approach.