FTC talking to Google rivals about AdMob deal - report

Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:45pm EST

* FTC has asked at least two companies for declarations

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are stepping up their investigation into Google Inc's (GOOG.O) planned acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob, suggesting that the government may challenge the $750 million deal, according to a media report on Wednesday.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has asked at least two companies that compete with Google or are involved in advertising to sign sworn declarations, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The declarations put on paper information that the companies have already provided to the FTC during its investigation into the competitive impact of the deal.

In December, Google said it had received a "second request" for information from the FTC, postponing the immediate closing of the deal.[N23164798]

Stephen Calkins, a former general counsel at the FTC, told Bloomberg that declarations are typically collected when agency officials believe there is a "significant chance" the agency will ask a court to block a merger or modify a deal. He added that it was not uncommon for the agency to collect affidavits and then not litigate.

Google and the FTC were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Carol Bishopric)

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Comments (1)
mobiThinking wrote:
No one really knows the true market share of the mobile ad networks. The only way to do this is by revenue – every other measure is flawed for one reason or another – but no mobile ad network reveals revenue – (even in secret to analysts, ask them if you don’t believe us).
However no one would refuse to tell the FTC their revenues, right? So why doesn’t the FTC do itself, Google/AdMob and everyone else a favor and request those numbers, work out the market shares, publish it and then we can put the thing to rest once and for all. We wrote to the FTC in December suggesting this a while back with a list of the 14 ad networks to contact first (not that we heard anything of course), but fingers crossed this will be part of the investigation (assuming there is one of course).
If you want to know more about as networks, this guide profiles AdMob and all the other main networks in full: http://mobithinking.com/mobile-ad-network-guide

Mar 11, 2010 7:15pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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