Some of the biggest names on the Internet appear to have already seen the value in DoubleClick’s service — or its potential. Google and Microsoft are pursuing bids to buy the company, according to The Wall Street Journal, which said that DoubleClick’s owner, the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, has priced DoubleClick at more than $2 billion. Hellman & Friedman, which paid $1.1 billion for the company in July 2005, did not return a call for comment last night.

Image Scott Spencer, left; David Rosenblatt, center; and Michael Rubenstein, executives at DoubleClick. Its new service will let advertisers see what competitors bid for particular ads, much as eBay shows past bids. Credit... Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

The online advertisement exchange will make DoubleClick more attractive to a potential acquirer because there is much demand for such a service and little supply, industry executives said. One of the few companies that runs this kind of auction, Right Media, took in $40 million last October when it sold a 20 percent stake to Yahoo.

“If you want to be a network in this kind of market, the biggest challenge you face is access to publisher-side supply,” said Michael Walrath, chief executive of Right Media of New York. “So ad management — providing the trafficking and delivery services to publishers — is a really nice foot in the door to gaining access to those publishers’ supply.”

Historically, ads in traditional media like television and magazines have been purchased through human negotiation. But the auctions introduced by Internet companies like Google and Yahoo for search advertising have forced some advertising executives to look for more efficient ways to sell ads. Now some of the biggest names on the Internet, including Google and eBay, are seeking to participate more broadly in advertising auctions.

DoubleClick’s revenue in 2006 was about $300 million, but some industry executives said that the auction service the company was introducing made it worth much more.

“Whoever gets them can immediately turn into an ad exchange business overnight,” said Dave Morgan, chairman of Tacoda, an online advertising network. “Two billion dollars will not be a stretch for that.”

DoubleClick has signed up 35 Web publishers, advertising networks, agencies and advertisers to test the system, which should be up and running in the third quarter. Two of the testers are Advertising.com, a large ad network, and Media Contacts, an interactive media buyer that is part of Havas. DoubleClick will charge a commission for each ad impression traded on its exchange.