14 DAY TRIAL // The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finally approved Google’s pending acquisition of AdMob, a mobile advertising startup. The web giant offered $750 million for the company, but the sale has been on hold as the FTC investigated whether the move would hurt competition in the emerging sector. Ironically, it was Apple’s moves in the mobile advertising market that ensured regulators that Google would not be in a dominating position.
Google has welcomed the conclusion of the investigation. “Today, the Federal Trade Commission cleared our acquisition of AdMob, a mobile advertising start up. We’re excited to work with Omar Hamoui and his talented team at AdMob to develop new mobile advertising solutions for marketers, mobile app developers and mobile publishers,” Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google, wrote.
“The decision is great news for the mobile advertising ecosystem as a whole. This was reflected in the widespread industry support for our acquisition,” she added. Google has been waiting six months for a decision, a very long time in the fast-evolving market.
The company had previously said it was prepared to fight a negative decision, as AdMob is considered crucial to its operations. It is said that Google had agreed to a $700-million kill-fee, which it would pay AdMob in case the deal fell through, so that might have had something to do with the company’s determination.
In the end, despite plenty of signs pointing at the FTC wanting to block the deal, the acquisition was approved. Google will now start integrating AdMob’s products, the company is focused on display ads either on the web or in apps. Of course, it has some catching up to do, as plenty of things have changed in the six months it took the FTC to approve the deal.
Apple managed to acquire another mobile advertising startup, it is said that Apple also wanted AdMob, and has since integrated its products and launched its own ad network, iAd. It is this move that spurred the FTC to approve the deal, but it’s ironic, to say the least, that Apple was able to create a new business for itself while Google was stuck in acquisition purgatory.