Google acquisition review causes controversy

21st November 2007

US senators on the anti-trust committee have urged the government to subject Google's purchase of DoubleClick to "serious scrutiny".

Google bid to buy advertising group DoubleClick for $3.1 billion (£1.5 billion) in April of this year.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission's chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, senators Herb Kohl and Orrin Hatch claim the deal will have a "potentially far reaching" negative impact on competition and consumer privacy in the internet advertising market.

However Cord Blomquist, technology policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute voiced his disagreement with the senators concerns in a press statement.

He claimed: "The efficiency of the free market is nowhere more evident than on the web, where creativity matters far more than market leverage. Government intervention would undermine this innovative spirit."

Those who use the internet would be the "ultimate victims", he added, suggesting that Google-DoubleClick will deliver customised adverts for consumers, resulting in wider consumer appeal.