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Google is one step closer to becoming an even more powerful player in the online advertising business.  The FTC last week ruled in favor of the search giant’s acquisition of DoubleClick, the biggest display advertiser in the business, valued at roughly $800 million.  Google still has to wait for EU approval, but with the FTC already giving the deal the thumbs up, the chances for the EU doing the same have increased.

With DoubleClick in the fold, Google will be able to sell advertisers both search and online ads together for the first time.  Microsoft and Yahoo! both already offer members this feature, but aren’t close to having the same market share as Google.  According to an article on Thestreet.com:

DoubleClick would make Google the overnight leader in the display ad serving market.

DoubleClick is currently the biggest player in the roughly $800 million display ad-serving market with a 40% market share, according to Oppenheimer analyst Sandeep Aggarwal. That will complement Google’s strength in the search market, where the company commanded a 59% market share of search queries in November, according to ComScore.

Analysts have been calling for Google stock to approach the $1000 per share mark in the future, perhaps as soon as the upcoming year.  Adding display ads will boost Google’s advertisers selling power, the article states, because:

…users who saw both display and search ads from the same advertiser were 22% more likely to click on an ad than users who saw only one form of advertising.

Google is already the king of online advertising, and the newest addition, will only help to strengthen the kingdom.

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