With Adobe’s recent acquisition of Omniture for approximately $1.8 billion, shares of ValueClick (VCLK) once again began to rise on the rumor that perhaps they may be next. In fact, since the Omniture acquisition announcement, they have risen 9%.
It appears every time there is an acquisition of an online advertising business, the ValueClick stock rises with the rumors that they may be next, and for good reason.
ValueClick, which was founded in 1997, is one of the largest online advertising networks with 2008 revenue over $652 million and first half of 2009 revenue over $265.
Agencies such as WWP Group, Omnicom Group or Publicis Groupe are the most likely buyers of ValueClick. With the continued migration of advertising dollars from traditional media to digital media, these agencies are faced with the old “build vs. buy” decision. Luckily for the ad networks, they’ve built distribution, customers, expertise and technologies that are not easily duplicated. It shall be quite interesting to see how this unfolds.