Spider's Latest

Google completes DoubleClick takeover

Google at long last acquired online advertising firm Doubleclick yesterday (March 11th) after nearly a year of regulatory hold-up.

The search engine completed the deal, which was announced 11 months ago, following approval from the European Commission.

The Commission said in a statement that Google and DoubleClick "were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other's activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment".

US regulators approved the transaction in December, ignoring the concerns of Microsoft and other companies that DoubleClick would give Google too much control over online advertising.

Commenting on the takeover, Wayne Arnold of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, said: "Today's acquisition of DoubleClick will provide Google with unrivalled access to consumer data and a foothold in the display media space.

"As a result, advertisers and agencies will require strong reassurance that this new market power will not be exploited at the expense of consumer privacy or unfair market dominance." ADNFCR-1536-ID-18505367-ADNFCR