Google DoubleClick deal set for EU approval
Google’s $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising firm DoubleClick seems certain to be approved by European regulators.
Despite fears over the move restricting competition, observers are reporting that the European Commission are extremely likely to pass the takeover when it makes its April 2 2008 decision.
This signs have looked good ever since the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the merger in December 2007; for the last six years the European body has green-lighted every merger of American companies also approved by the FTC.
The deal will cement Google’s position in online advertising, combining their dominance of the Pay-per-Click (PPC) sector and DoubleClick’s extensive display advertising business.
Competition objections
Competitors claim that the merger will give Google access to even more proprietary data on the advertising market and make for an uneven playing field.
There are also suggestions that Google might use their knowledge of the DoubleClick’s algorithms to favour Google’s Adsense adverts over those of competitor systems.
Google themselves have rejected the idea, saying that any performance bias would be obvious to advertisers.
“An advertiser and publisher would soon find out if their ad server was delivering poorly performing ads,” claimed the company in a statement.
It now seems that the best rivals can now hope for is for the European Commission to place conditions safeguarding competition on the deal when it goes through.
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