Google gets EU OK
E-commerce
12 March 2008
Google has been given the all clear from EU legislators and has completed on its deal with DoubleClick.
The purchase cost the search company £1.5 billion and will unite it with a leading ad-provider, despite worries the merger would be uncompetitive in the wider advertising market.
The Commission said: "Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other's activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment."
It disagreed with concerns raised by Google's competitors and explained the market would still offer choice "because of the presence of credible ad serving alternatives to which customers (publishers/advertisers/ad networks) can switch".
The Commission found that the merged entity would not have the ability to engage in strategies aimed at marginalising Google's competitors.
The Centre for Digital Democracy, in a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission had told policy makers the deal would create " insurmountable barriers to entry in the interactive ad market".
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