Well, the big are getting bigger. Google today announced it's intention to buy Double Click for 3.1 billion dollars....cash.

For those of you unfamiliar with Double Click, it's the creator of the DART ad buying system, and is the world's largest ad management company. Essentially they buy and distribute online ads virtually everywhere, including MSN and Yahoo.

Big shocker, Microsoft is a little perturbed. I would be too. Double Click buys HUGE amounts of ad space on MSN.com and other Microsoft properties and as a result is no doubt privy to some information that might be considered..... confidential.

In the end, if it goes through, Google will essentially totally dominate online advertising. Sometimes lack of competition is a bad thing. Then again, what is the job of any publicly traded company? To make money for it's investors. Clearly buying Double Click makes great financial sense to Google. We do live in a free market economy after all.

Check out the press release here

Of all the companies in the world that could afford to buy Double Click, I'm far more comfortable with Google than I would be with others *cough*billgates*cough*.