The New York Post reports that the sale of DoubleClick to San Francisco-based leveraged buyout firm Hellman & Friedman, possibly for $1.2 billion, may be right around the corner. Sources close to the talks told the Post that the parties are close to an agreement, but it's not a done deal. Rival bidders General Atlantic Partners and Cerberus Capital Management may yet up the ante, but an agreement may be announced in the next couple of days, according to the sources.

The reported $1.2 billion price tag would value the enterprise at less than $1 billion, as the purchase would include roughly a quarter billion in cash over and above DoubleClick's existing debt. The price per share would be about twenty percent higher than it closed Wednesday afternoon.

Shares of DoubleClick jumped in this morning's trading, closing the gap between yesterday's price and the rumored per-share offer by about half-way.

DoubleClick has been on the market since the last quarter of 2004, causing many companies in the industry to expect a consolidation. That consolidation may be delayed a step if, as is suggested in the Post piece, the initial buyer is an investment group with plans on flipping the company or peeling off profitable parts.

MarketingVOX reported about two months ago that new golden parachutes that DoubleClick drew up for its top executives were being accounted for in Q1 expenses, possibly indicating the imminence of a deal and also the likelihood that a buyer of DoubleClick would want to push existing management aside. The terms of those golden parachutes extend only through June.