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EU gives Google-DoubleClick buy thumbs up
Tuesday, March 11 2008
by Sheila M. Averbuch


Google's multi-billion dollar acquisition of online ad
network DoubleClick has finally been given the go-ahead by
European regulators.

The European Commission (EC) said Tuesday the USD3.1 billion
deal won't impede competition, despite the complaints of
Microsoft and Yahoo.



"The Commission found that the merged entity would not have
the ability to engage in strategies aimed at marginalising
Google's competitors, mainly because of the presence of
credible ad-serving alternatives... in particular Microsoft,
Yahoo and AOL," said the EC in a statement.



The acquisition had already been approved by US regulators in
December.



The EC had taken longer in its investigation partly because
of the potential privacy concerns of joining together the
databases of the two companies, which include significant
information on users' web activity.



Those concerns were eventually put aside as they were
considered beyond the remit of European competition
regulators.



Other organisations were happy the deal hadn't been blocked.



Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association of Competitive
Technology which represents SMEs, said: "The merger will
undoubtedly change the competitive landscape of our industry
and fuel the evolution of internet advertising."



The Register
and its contents are copyright 2008 Situation Publishing.
Reprinted with permission.