From Reuters:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc. (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) has emerged along with Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqGS:MSFT - News) as a contender to buy DoubleClick Inc., presenting competition that stands to increase the final sale price of the online-advertising company, people familiar with the situation said in The Wall Street Journal.
John Batelle has a new post up about the MS aQuantive deal:
"What struck me most was the commitment to have a solution that counters AdSense, but with a richer suite of services for both publishers and advertisers. Microsoft is really committed to this business, but they have work to do to productize and integrate this acquisition."
More here -