Google's Mad Dash

But it's hard to believe that the size of the display market suddenly dawned on Google. After all, not only has the company itself been a participant in the display market, it has also seen competitors such as Yahoo!(YHOO Quote), AOL's(TWX Quote) Time Warner and Microsoft(MSFT Quote) feed off that revenue.

Rather, Schmidt is avoiding stating the obvious about the deal: Google's hand was forced when it was reported that Microsoft had approached DoubleClick about an acquisition. Keeping Microsoft from picking up DoubleClick -- which may well still have a valuable overlap of customers with Google -- had to play a role in Google's move.

And the acquisition shows telltale signs more of a rush brought on by a fierce bidding war than a contemplative move -- even beyond the ballooning price tag. Google didn't have time to fully think through the deal.

Asked about what Google will do with Performics, an online marketing company operated by DoubleClick that counts Yahoo!, among others, as a customer, Google co-founder and President of Technology Sergey Brin said the "complication that you recognized is also one that we have discussed. Unfortunately, with the overall size of this deal and the rest of the DoubleClick business we have really been focusing on, I don't think we have a concrete plan to share with you today." Brin said that Google "will have to figure that out after the transaction closes."