A flurry of activity over the weekend after Friday’s announcement about Google’s intention to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash. Competitors like Yahoo, Time Warner and Microsoft, all of whom did bid for DCLK, are talking about anti-competitive nature of the deal. The deal will be subject to a review by either the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission.
-- This is possibly the first time Microsoft has leveled a charge of anti-competitive behavior, reports FT. Between them, Google and DoubleClick account for “over 80 per cent of the adverts delivered to website publishers, so their combination in a single company has big ramifications,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said on Sunday.
-- AT&T, which has ambitious plans for online video and of course advertising along with it, said “To the extent that they are the broker of advertising for anything moving on the internet, we would be forced to deal with Google on Google’s terms,” said Jim Cicconi, head of external and legislative affairs at AT&T. Small internet companies in particular could be vulnerable, since “Google would be in a position to pick winners and losers,” he added.
-- WSJ: The first step in the review will be for Google and DoubleClick to submit filings to the government under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, which covers certain tests a merger or acquisition must pass before it is approved. Executives at the companies said they are hoping regulators will consider a “second request”—which refers to a second request for information on an antitrust review. Such a request can delay approval by several months and can result in a killed deal.
-- One issue the deal’s critics have also raised is whether it could generate privacy concerns since the Google-DoubleClick combination would bring together vast quantities of information about what consumers do online.
-- NYTimes: Google dismissed Microsoft’s assertions. “We’ve studied this closely, and their claims, as stated, are not true,” Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, told NYT. Schmidt said that Google and DoubleClick are each “small components of a much larger advertising market,” and each faces considerable competition. He added that it is easy to switch to offerings from rivals of Google and DoubleClick.