WebProNews

Google shares dropped more than 4.5 percent in trading Monday, as the general bad mood from losing an hour's sleep due to the change to Daylight Savings Time carried over into Wall Street.

Today proved a much better day for the search advertising company. Desperate to complement their lucrative paid search business with a display ad network, they made a play for DoubleClick last year, offering its private equity owners $3.1 billion.

A longer than expected and sometimes contentious approval process strung the acquisition out into 2008. When the EU finally followed the FTC in bestowing its approval, investors responded positively.

Shares of Google climbed to $439.84 today, after a previous close of $413.62. If the deal goes as planned, DoubleClick will contribute to Google's bottom line and diversify it from the paid search ads that represent about 99 percent of its revenue now.

The competition in general, and Microsoft in particular, will be watching the online ad marketplace for any suggestions that the Google and DoubleClick combo are proving too potent in locking up advertisers. That won't be a problem if Microsoft and others provide the competitive marketplace the EU believes they can; we will be interested in seeing that happen too.