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March 12, 2008
Google Completes Acquisition of DoubleClick
By Anshu Shrivastava, TMCnet Contributing Editor
Google ( News - Alert) has completed the much awaited $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, a company that offers online ad serving and management technology to advertisers, Web publishers and ad agencies.
On Tuesday, European regulators reportedly approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick ( News - Alert), stating that the deal would not hurt competition. DoubleClick is considered a significant player in the $37 billion online advertising business.
The European Commission said that the combination would not hurt competition because Google and DoubleClick occupy different parts of the market, and advertisers would be able to opt for alternatives, including services from Microsoft ( News - Alert), Yahoo and AOL, according to a New York Times report.
Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick has been opposed by Microsoft. and Yahoo and also privacy advocates who are worried that too much information would be stored on users and their Web habits, the New York Times reported.
However, the Commission said the merger “would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers.”
Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO at Google, said, “We are thrilled that our acquisition of DoubleClick has closed.”
He also said that with DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable his company to rapidly bring to “market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users.”
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington had already approved the deal.
The New York Times also notes that analysts believe that the approval of the Google-DoubleClick deal could strengthen Microsoft’s argument that it should be allowed to buy Yahoo, were it to succeed in its battle with that company.
“E.U. and U.S. antitrust regulators have also perversely set the stage for Microsoft’s goal of acquiring Yahoo, furthering more concentration of control in the new-media sector,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Demo cracy in Washington.
Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
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(source: http://internetcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/enterprise/articles/22759-google-completes-acquisition-doubleclick.htm)
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