Google rivals want scrutiny of Google-DoubleClick deal
Several companies, including Microsoft and AT&T, fearing an unprecedented consolidation of power in the online advertising market, are urging regulators to consider scuttling Google’s plan to buy online advertising company DoubleClick.
These companies have yet to file any formal objections with regulators in the United States or Europe but they are now beginning to publicly voice their concerns.
Google’s purchase of DoubleClick would combine the two largest online advertising distributors, which substantially reduce competition in the advertising market on the Web.
Microsoft contends that the Google-DoubleClick deal, would hurt competition in the fast-growing market for advertising on the Web. “This proposed acquisition raises serious competition and privacy concerns,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel.
Google tracks the interests and preferences among the millions of people who use its search engine and DoubleClick uses tiny programs on computers, called cookies, that monitor what sites users visit.
Smith added that if the deal goes through, Google would account for 80 percent of the ads served up on the Internet.
However, Google dismissed Microsoft’s assertions. “We’ve studied this closely, and their claims, as stated, are not true,” Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, said in an interview last night.
Schmidt said that Google and DoubleClick are “small components of a much larger advertising market,” and face considerable competition. He added that it is easy to switch to offerings from rivals of Google and DoubleClick.
Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president for external affairs at AT&T said, “We think antitrust authorities should take a hard look at this deal and the implications. If any one company gets a hammerlock on the online advertising space, as Google seems to be trying to do, that is worrisome.”
AT&T would be affected by a Google-DoubleClick combination because AT&T distributes services over the Internet like digital television, known as IPTV, Cicconi said.
“For many of these new Web services, it could be that the advertising-supported model is the predominant business model,” he said. “The danger here is that Google could be in a position to pick winners and losers.”
A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment while Time Warner spokesman said that the company had not decided whether it would try to block the deal.
Microsoft was one of the companies, along with Yahoo and Time Warner, that lost out to Google in the bidding for DoubleClick.
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