The speculation that Google has been eying online ad company DoubleClick for sometime has been confirmed with the 2 companies reaching an agreement today. In a deal worth $3.1 billion that is almost double the value Google paid for YouTube last year, Google has won the bidding race in which Microsoft was the other contender.

An excerpt from New York Times:

Keeping Microsoft away from DoubleClick is worth billions to Google, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, Jordan Rohan, said.