Google to acquire DoubleClick.com
San Francisco: Web advertising leader Google Inc. plans to acquire leading online advertising network DoubleClick Inc for $3.1 billion in an all cash deal.

The deal represents the largest acquisition in Google's history and comes just six months after Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire video-sharing site YouTube.

The DoubleClick acquisition will strengthen Google's, search-based advertising business on the internet, as it expands into print, radio, video, mobile and TV ad markets.

The combination will also boost the ad targeting and analysis capabilities that Google can offer advertising customers.

DoubleClick, a leading independent player in the first generation of online advertising during the 1990s, has been majority-owned by San Francisco private equity firm Hellman & Friedman since 2005.

Hellman & Friedman paid $1.1 billion in stock and debt for its stake. JMI Management is a co-investor in the company.

Microsoft Corp. also involved in bidding for DoubleClick, is said to have withdrawn after the auction price rose above $2 billion. Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL online unit were also interested in DoubleClick.
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Sinopec results beat forecasts
Hong Kong: Top Asian oil refiner Sinopec Corp. registered a more than double rise in quarterly earnings as falling oil prices helped its refining arm turn around. The company also showed a 50 percent surge in first-half profit.

Sinopec said its net profit was 19.4 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in the first three months of the year against a revised 9.55 billion yuan a year earlier.

A top economic planning official said last month China would adopt a cautious approach in reforming energy prices, to better suit international levels.

Global crude oil prices plunged to a 19-month low of $51 a barrel in January before rebounding to around $65 a barrel at the end of March.

Sinopec, also China's second-largest oil and gas producer, pumped 2.3 percent more crude and 15.6 per cent more natural gas in 2006. It processed 146.32 million tonnes of crude last year, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier.
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