Yahoo! Inc. (NDAQ:YHOO) announced the acquisition of privately held Right Media today for $680 million just a week after Google Inc.'s (NDAQ:GOOG) well-publicized acquisition of DoubleClick. Right Media is a privately held company that enables publishers to buy and sell online ad placements in real time through an auction system - a system very similar to that of DoubleClick. The move will give Yahoo the ability to sell and broker ads outside of its own network of websites and diversify its revenues to better compete with Google.

The move marks continued consolidation in the highly-competitive online advertising market as giants Yahoo, Google, AOL and Microsoft compete to broaden their audience. Notably, Microsoft (NDAQ:MSFT) and TimeWaner's AOL (NYSE:TWX) have yet to obtain a presence in the more traditional banner advertising market to compliment their existing contextual search business. Clearly, both of these companies are interested in such acquisitions since they were involved in the bidding for DoubleClick before Google's blockbuster bid. So, what are some other potential targets for continued consolidation? Well, three key players have emerged: aQuantive (NDAQ:AQNT), ValueClick (NDAQ:VCLK) and 24/7 Real Media (NDAQ:TFSM). Right now, several of these names are down since Yahoo!'s acquisition involved a private company, suggesting that these players are somewhat overpriced. However, given Microsoft's large cash reserves and AOL's need to establish itself in the market, the buyout possibilities for these firms remains strong.

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