So, in today’s ClickZ News coverage of how a possible DoubleClick sale could affect the industry, I wrote that Hellman & Friedman stands to “nearly double what the equity firm paid for it two years ago,” since the it reportedly wants $2 billion for the ad management company. As noted in that piece, H & F already earned $90 million from selling DoubleClick’s e-mail business, but what I neglected to note (and Tacoda Chairman Dave Morgan reminded me of) is H & F made $435 million selling off Abacus in December.
So, if they do sell DC for $2 billion, they’ll have made about 2.5 times the $1.1 billion they paid. By the looks of those numbers (and I’m not a financial wiz, so if I’m not getting some nuance here, I’m sure someone will call me out on it), buying DC was a good investment.
“That’s not a bad day at the office,” Morgan told me.