Google Gets EU Approval For DoubleClick Takeover

The European Commission has approved Google’s £1.55 billion takeover of online advertising network DoubleClick.

Following an investigation which began last November, the commission found that the merger would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers.

Third parties such as Microsoft had complained that the merger, which has already been approved in the US by the Federal Trade Commission, would give Google control of 80% of the online advertising market.

In its ruling, the EC said: “The commission’s in-depth market investigation found 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.”

It added: “Even if DoubleClick could become an effective competitor in online intermediation services, it is likely that other competitors would continue to exert sufficient competitive pressure after the merger.”

Google announced its merger agreement with DoubleClick in April as part of a plan to drive its display-ad business by offering a centralised system that gives advertisers and media agencies the ability to manage their search and display-ad campaigns.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users.”

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