Google’s DoubleClick deal under scrutiny
Google’s £1.5 billion acquisition of DoubleClick is likely to be delayed for months by the European Commission, according to the Times.
The European competition watchdog has until October 26th to decide whether to launch a full investigation into the takeover.
This move would stall the process by at least four months and could potentially lead to its abandonment altogether if the investigation were to reveal significant competition issues.
The search engine giant defeated Microsoft in a bidding war for DoubleClick earlier this year. It has been suggested that Microsoft matched Google’s bid but was rejected by Helman & Friedman, DoubleClick’s private equity owner.
Google maintains that the online marketing deal is “positive for users and advertisers and fosters competition”.
Meanwhile Microsoft continues to lobby against the acquisition on competition and privacy grounds.
Google and DoubleClick together account for a staggering 80 per cent of all adverts.
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