ReveNews
FTC Investigating Google’s DoubleClick Plans
According to this UPI article, the New York Times (NYT) is reporting that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun investigating Google’s $3.1 billion plan to purchase DoubleClick Inc., the parent company of Performics.
The NYT source claims that the inquiry was opened last week after a decision was reached regarding whether the FTC or the Justice Department would conduct the investigation. The reason for the investigation was not released since the FTC does not comment on pending inquiries.
While small-scale inquiries have been made before, I predict this move by Google to purchase DoubleClick and the FTC to investigate will mark the beginning of many serious government investigations of Google both in the United States and abroad. It is my guess that these probes, while similar to the Microsoft investigations in the 1990s, will end up dwarfing those investigations. Competent attorneys specializing in Internet law will have job security for years to come.
Thanks for your comment, Sandra. When Google started censoring search results in China at the communist government’s “request” while refusing U.S. government requests for aggregate keyword data to understand terrorists, I feel they, as a company, lost their soul. I’m usually not a fan of government intervention; however in this case I’d like to see a little more investigation.
Looks like the FTC investigation is just a formality and their main concern is how much data Google now has access to rather than any monopolistic issue. Sounds like this deal is 99% likely to get approved based on this article in businessweek.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2007/tc20070529_360181.htm