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The title completely misses the point that it isn't what you buy, but what you do with it. Another proof that execution is the key.

If Yahoo had bought DoubleClick, they likely would not have come up with AdWords, which is where the big money is for Google. On top of that, Yahoo's search technology wasn't as good as google, so people would have still left Yahoo for google.

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I completely agree about the execution aspect. At another level to me the value of acquisitions comes from understanding how you will increase the value of the product. At the consumer product level look at what P&G did with Swiffer. They knew with their marketing and distribution they saw a little diamond in the rough.

I'm guessing the opportunity the people within Google saw at the time they were competing for acquisitions was the same thing. Maybe one saw a diamond in the rough while others saw the diamond as being complete and thus those differing perspectives led to different executions post-acquisition.

Google had AdWords long before they bought DoubleClick. As a matter of fact, Yahoo had adwords (they bought Overture) long before Google bought doubleclick.

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