ValueClick Thursday announced that it has agreed to purchase FastClick in a stock transaction worth $214 million. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, will add FastClick's
stable of more than 9,000 third-party Web sites with a reach of 112 million unique users to ValueClick's network. FastClick will be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary. This May, FastClick began
competing with search giant Google's AdSense program by offering contextual ads. The company also had a lackluster initial public stock offering this April, when it closed at its offering price of
$12, and fell to $11.50 the following day.
--Shankar Gupta