Google to sell DoubleClick's search marketing unit

4 April 2008

Google has confirmed details of how it will divest the search marketing business it acquired when it bought DoubleClick last month.

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Writing in the Google Blog, director of DoubleClick integration Tom Phillips explained that Google has decided to split the Performics component of the business in two, and keep only the affiliate marketing part of it.

"It's clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business," he wrote. "Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google's mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party."

The affiliate marketing business is to be integrated into Google's existing operations.

As part of the reorganisation, The New York Times reports that Google will cut 300 workers at DoubleClick, "the first sizable layoffs in [Google's] history".

Category: Google, Online marketing, Paid search, Search engines