Senator Says Google Deal Merits Scrutiny

posted by  vincent (90)  13 months ago (www.topix.net)

The chairman of a Senate antitrust panel said Thursday that Google Inc.'s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick Inc. 'warrants close examination' by federal regulators.

At the same time, Microsoft Corp., which sought to acquire DoubleClick but lost out to Google, argued that the deal should be blocked because it is bad for competition and consumer privacy.

Because the deal would combine Google's position as the leading seller of text ads with DoubleClick's dominance of graphic display ads, Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., asked whether 'advertisers and Internet publishers (will) have no choice but to deal with Google, giving Google a stranglehold over Internet advertising and the power to raise ad rates.'