Google have yet again proved why Microsoft and Yahoo will never be able to compete with them. This is because, having read the press release (in Russian) issued by Begun - the Russian contextual advertising company recently – which has recently been acquired by Google and shows they’ve made a smart business decision.

This is proved by the company reporting that its first 6 months of 2008 profit is 25% higher than during the entire 2007.  As well as this, the company now has additional 30 thousand publishers taking their total to 173 thousand publishers which include major Russian sites Mail.Ru, Afisha, and Rambler itself.

This isn’t the only thing that Begun are doing, they are also heavily recruiting new advertising agencies. This is proven by the fact that in the first half of 2008 the number of new agencies accredited by the company already equals to the total last year’s figure.

However, the profit achieved is not just because, of the additional users as its advertisers are spending 9% more on contextual ads.

This proves that Begun was ripe for acquisition and how it needed a company like Google to take it on - to ensure it can sustain its quick growth. However, it is showing huge potential especially in a market which is set to increase by 70%.

This also proves why Microsoft and Yahoo etc are never going to be able to compete with Google who are always appearing to get these deals at the right time but it does seem to make me wonder why are these other firms not making such good acquisitions as this?