FTC to Review Google-DoubleClick Deal

FTC to Review Google-DoubleClick Deal

By Chloe Albanesius
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday confirmed that it will conduct an antitrust review of Google's planned acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick

The FTC "will be the reviewing agency [and] it will be an antitrust investigation," said Mitchell Katz, an FTC spokesperson. He could not provide details on how long the investigation might take.

Google in April announced that it would acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash.

Google maintained that the FTC review is standard procedure.


"We are confident that upon further review the FTC will conclude that this acquisition poses no risk to competition and should be approved," Don Harrison, senior corporate counsel for Google, said in a statement.

Independent analysts and academics have concluded that the online advertising market "is a dynamic and evolving space -- as evidenced by a number of recently announced acquisitions -- and that rich competition in this industry will bring more relevant ads to consumers and more choices for advertisers and website publishers," Harrison said.

Those acquisitions include Yahoo's purchase of Right Media for $680 million, America Online's purchase of Adtech AG, WPP Group's acquisition of 24/7 Real Media for $649 million and Microsoft's purchase of aQuantive for $6 billion.

The proposed merger has raised concerns amongst privacy advocates.

The acquisition "will give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world," the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) wrote in a complaint to the FTC. "Google will operate with virtually no legal obligation to ensure that privacy, security and accuracy of the personal data that it collects."

EPIC has previously been at odds with DoubleClick. It filed a complaint with the FTC in 2000 alleging that DoubleClick had illegally been tracking the online activities of Internet users. The FTC closed that investigation in 2001 after DoubleClick agreed to disclose its use of web bugs known as GIFs in tracking user progress.

Earlier this month, the New York State Consumer Protection Board sent a letter to the FTC voicing its concern about how the combined Google-DoubleClick might use consumers' personal information.

"We urge the FTC to require Google to make full and public disclosure of its current data collection practices and contemplated data collection practices post-merger," wrote Mindy Bockstein, chairperson and executive director of the board.

Bockstein also requested a public workshop on the issue of data safeguards.

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