FTC Clears Google To Buy DoubleClick

Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion deal to buy Internet advertising services company DoubleClick Inc. was cleared by the Federal Trade Commission, but it faces a final and potentially tougher hurdle in Europe.

Google rivals, including Microsoft Corp., and privacy advocates had lobbied against the deal. But in a 4-1 decision, the commission concluded that Google's purchase of the Internet advertising-services company 'is unlikely to substantially lessen competition.'

The purchase is critical to Google's ambitions to expand its online advertising business beyond the small text ads that generate the bulk of its revenue into graphical display ads, such as banners, and other formats. Display advertising represents roughly 20% of all online ad revenue.

DoubleClick serves such ads for Web publishers -- inserting ads on a Web page as a consumer pulls it up -- and provides systems for advertisers and ad agencies to manage online advertising. Ownership of infrastructure technology alongside ad-brokering services, such as Google's systems for selling ads on other Web sites, is likely to be increasingly important amid industry competition and consolidation such as Microsoft's recent $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive Inc.

The FTC concluded that the market for DoubleClick's ad-serving offering is likely to become increasingly competitive, meaning that Google would likely face backlash from Web publishers if it tried to manipulate DoubleClick's systems to favor ads sold by Google. The FTC said, however, that it would act quickly 'should Google engage in unlawful tying or other anticompetitive conduct.'

The FTC said that privacy concerns centered on whether Google's potential ability to access DoubleClick data about consumer Internet activities 'extend to the entire online marketplace' and declined to try to block or impose conditions on that basis.

In a dissenting statement, Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour said the deal 'has greater potential to harm competition, and it also threatens privacy.'

The Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy group focused on digital media, said the commission's ruling was 'flawed,' and that 'U.S. consumers will have to live under the shadow of an even bigger digital giant, with a privacy time bomb ticking in the background.'

Google Senior Vice President David Drummond wrote on the company's Web site that the FTC decision affirms Google's view that the 'acquisition does not threaten competition in what is a robust, innovative, and quickly evolving online advertising space.'

In Europe, Google faces a longer slog. Privacy and consumer groups, along with Google and DoubleClick's competitors, have complained loudly to European regulators about the deal. The EU's antitrust watchdog last month opened an extended investigation, meaning it has until early April to complete its review.

Google generally has a larger share of search advertising in European countries than it does in the U.S., making antitrust worries more acute. EU regulators also scrutinize so-called vertical mergers -- ones between companies operating in different markets -- more closely than do their counterparts on this side of the Atlantic.

The EU has said it is examining whether joining Google's ad-selling network and DoubleClick's ad-serving platform would box out competitors. One area of concern is whether Google will gain an edge through access to DoubleClick's rich trove of information about Web surfers' habits and about the ads presented to them. Google has pledged to the EU that it will preserve some information-sharing restrictions in place at DoubleClick.

The extended regulatory reviews of the proposed DoubleClick deal, announced in April, could give a leg up to rivals. Already, Microsoft Wednesday announced a pact whereby Viacom Inc. will shift from using DoubleClick to Microsoft's Atlas service, acquired as part of the aQuantive deal.

谷歌(Google Inc.)以31亿美元收购互联网广告服务公司DoubleClick Inc.的计划已获联邦贸易委员会(Federal Trade Commission)批准，但在欧洲仍将面临最后一步、可能更为艰难的障碍。

微软(Microsoft Corp.)等谷歌的竞争对手及主张保护隐私权的人士纷纷反对该项交易。但联邦贸易委员会以4比1的投票结果裁定谷歌收购这家广告服务公司“不太可能对竞争构成威胁。”

这项并购对谷歌意欲扩张在线广告业务的雄心至关重要。谷歌希望将为其带来大部分收入的小块文本广告扩展为图文展开式广告（包括横幅广告）和其他形式的广告。展开式广告目前在全部在线广告收入中占20%左右。

DoubleClick为网络出版商提供这类广告（在消费者打开的网页中插入广告），并为广告客户和广告代理公司提供在线广告管理系统。在眼下的行业竞争和并购大潮中，同时拥有广告代理服务（比如谷歌在其他网站销售广告的系统）和基础技术可能会越来越重要。前不久，微软就以60亿美元收购了aQuantive Inc.。

联邦贸易委员会得出结论说，DoubleClick所处的广告服务市场竞争很可能越来越激烈，这意味着如果谷歌试图操纵DoubleClick的系统来让谷歌销售的广告得到好处，它可能会遭到网络出版商的反对。不过，联邦贸易委员会表示，如果谷歌有非法捆绑销售或其他违反竞争的行为，委员会将迅速作出反应。

联邦贸易委员会称，对隐私问题的担忧集中在谷歌一旦能够利用DoubleClick手中有关消费者互联网活动的数据，是否会将其扩展到整个互联网市场，不过该委员会拒绝以此阻止谷歌的并购或设置条件。

联邦贸易委员会成员帕梅拉•琼斯•哈珀(Pamela Jones Harbour)发表反对声明称，该交易很可能损害竞争，且对隐私权也构成了威胁。

数字民主中心(Center for Digital Democracy)是一个非营利性消费者保护组织，重点关注数字媒 领域。该组织表示，联邦贸易委员会的裁决有缺陷，“美国消费者不得不生活在更大的数字巨头的阴影下，他们的电脑后台如同被埋下了定时炸弹，随时可能危及隐私。”

谷歌资深副总裁大卫•德拉蒙德(David Drummond)在公司网站上写道，联邦贸易委员会的决定确认了谷歌的看法，即“在充满活力、不断创新和迅速发展的在线广告领域，这起并购不会对竞争构成威胁。”

在欧洲，谷歌还需要进行更多的艰苦努力。隐私权和消费者组织，加上谷歌和DoubleClick各自的竞争对手，都向欧洲监管机构强烈抗议这桩交易。上个月，欧洲反垄断机构展开了一项深度调查，这意味着其要到明年4月初才能完成评估。

总的来说，谷歌在欧洲国家的搜索广告市场份额高过在美国的，所以欧洲的反垄断问题更为尖锐。欧盟监管机构对所谓“纵向兼并”（在不同市场领域运营的公司之间的兼并）的审查比大西洋彼岸的同行更为严格。

欧盟宣称，正在调查谷歌的广告销售网络和DoubleClick的广告服务平台一旦合并是否会将竞争对手排除在外。人们担心的一个问题是，谷歌获取DoubleClick收集的丰富信息（互联网用户习惯如何，向他们发布的广告有哪些）后是否会因此获得竞争优势。谷歌则向欧盟保证自己会坚持DoubleClick现有的一些信息共享的限制。

今年4月，监管机构宣布对计划中的DoubleClick交易进行深度评估，这可能会让竞争对手有机可乘。微软周三宣布了一项协议，称维亚康姆(Viacom Inc.)将不再使用DoubleClick，而改用微软在收购aQuantive时一并纳入囊中的Atlas服务。

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