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Consumer Groups Argue Against the Google - AdMob Deal

As the FTC has increased its review period

Dec 28, 2009 16:31 GMT  ·  By
As the FTC has increased its review period of the Google - AdMob deal
   As the FTC has increased its review period of the Google - AdMob deal

Completely unsurprising, Google is facing more and more resistance and scrutiny as it continues to get into new markets and increases its dominance in the ones it is already present. Very recently, Google has announced its acquisition plans of mobile advertising company AdMob for the hefty of $750 million. It would be the biggest deals in the advertising field for the company after the acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008. Last week though, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asked for more details on the deal and has prolonged the review period. Now, a couple of consumer groups are reaching out to the FTC to block the deal with concerns over anti-trust and privacy issues.

"[W]e know that closer scrutiny has been one consequence of Google's success, and we've been talking to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the past few weeks. This week we received what's called a "second request," which means that the FTC is asking for more information so that they can continue to review the deal," Google originally responded to the extended scrutiny period.

At the time Google was confident that despite the delay due to the increased review period, which it rightly attributes to the company's success, the deal would go through and didn't believe there were any big stopping blocks. Even if the deal does go through, the process may bogged down for several months, something that Google is getting increasingly accustomed to. The mobile advertising market is pretty competitive at this time; however, AdMob is the current market leader and there are fears that with Google behind it, there is little to spot it from increasing its dominance.

Things are now getting potentially even more complicated as several consumer groups are asking for a complete block of the deal citing several issues. "On behalf of Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), we are writing to call on the Federal Trade Commission to block the acquisition by Google of its direct competitor AdMob. The proposed deal would substantially lessen competition in the increasingly important mobile advertising market," the two groups write in their letter to the FTC.