The Federal Trade Commission has set its sights set on Google.
According to the Wall Street Journal this week, the FTC is looking into Google’s proposed $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob.
Although many expected the mega-deal to provoke at least some attention from the FTC it seems unlikely at this time that any steps or actions will be taken to preclude the acquisition from actually taking place.
No names affiliated with either Google or the FTC were directly sourced in the article to provide inside details. According to a representative for Google, the “investigation” is presented as routine protocol.
“We don’t see any regulatory concerns with this deal, but closer scrutiny has been one consequence of our success,” a the spokesperson told the WSJ. “On that basis, we wouldn’t be surprised if there were some regulatory review before the deal closes.”
As many will recall, this instance isn’t the first time Google has been investigated. In early 2009, the Department of Justice looked into Google’s proposed Book Search settlement with authors and publishers. The DOJ had publicly expressed concern that Google would become too powerful as a result of the deal and obtain “too much control” over out-of-print books.
But if Google can ultimately be cleared as it was to purchase display advertising company DoubleClick for $3 billion, the acquisition of AdMob should ultimately present very few hurdles.
