FTC Looking into DoubleGoo (Google and DoubleClick)
May 28th, 2007
The New York Times reports tonight that the FTC is looking into the Google acquisition of DoubleClick for antitrust concerns.
Many people theorized this may occur, so it’s not terribly surprising. However, it could be a shift in the tide as this is the first time Google has come under government scrutiny for potentially being monopolistic. Many people point to Microsoft’s antitrust issues as being the time where Microsoft became “evil” to consumers and started to lose some of their magic touch. For the record, Microsoft still makes an incredible amount of money, so I don’t think I’d say it really has done all that much damage to Microsoft.
I think the most interesting thing to me will be how the government looks at online advertising. Is it the entire industry? Are they looking at search advertising independently? Display? How different is an ad network from ad serving? Definitely some questions left to answer.
More coverage from Read/Write Web and WebMetricsGuru.
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- The Ad Exchange Market Is Heating Up
Entry Filed under: Advertising
2 Comments Add your own
1. Mark McLaren | May 29th, 2007 at 8:52 am
That Microsoft was one of those asking for an investigation into the DoubleClick purchase is ironic given their track record, but that they would do so after losing out in the bidding seems like sour grapes, at best.
One question I have is, when the FTC or the Justice Department looks into Internet-related antitrust issues, where do they get their expert counsel? Advertising on the Internet is still such a new and rapidly evolving space. Are there any experts out there that don’t have ties to one company or another?
2. Pat McCarthy | May 29th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Hi Mark,
Good question, and I’d say that there are experts out there who aren’t related to the companies. I’m not sure really how the process works though so I can’t comment much on how they do it or how effective it really is.
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