DoubleClick sold to Google for $3.1 billion: Dotcom boom returning?

Google has agreed to buy DoubleClick for the (let's just say it) outrageous price of $3.1 billion. Has the dotcom boom returned? I remember when DoubleClick, Inc. was cool before, back in 1999. When I graduated from business school, one of my best friends went to work there. She loved her job (which was largely managing the integration of acquisitions, it seemed) but even then the company was in turmoil -- I can remember frequent tales of colleagues and supervisors scattering to go to sexier dotcoms, or bigger, more reliable companies.

And then, about the time my friend left, DoubleClick lost its aging appeal and was a necessary evil. In April 2005, the company fetched $1.1 billion when it was taken private by Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity. Since then, the firms have sold off bits of DoubleClick here or there for tidy, small profits. A few weeks ago, the whispers began: a bidding war for DoubleClick had begun, with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) with their paddles raised highest, some said (yikes!) as high as $2 billion.

The return for Hellman & Friedman has been pegged at a whopping 800%, making this a huge success for them at the same time it concerns many web publishers, who can only worry that Google has now truly become all-powerful. Could it be that Google and Microsoft will soon be considered in the same light? Or will Google's good-guy image survive?

I'm sure little companies all over -- and the firms who fund them -- will treat this news with rejoicing, and vie to be the first knocking on Google's door to be the next outrageous sale.