EC Approves Google’s Acquisition of DoubleClick

March 15th, 2008

On Tuesday, the European Commission cleared Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick without conditions. The EC review began six months ago and concluded the transaction is not likely to harm competition for online advertising.With that approval, Google quickly closed its acquisition of DoubleClick.

The EC reasoned that Google offers free search capabilities and sells advertising through its AdSense network. DoubleClick, by contrast, sells ad serving, management and reporting technology to Web-site publishers and to advertisers and agencies, with a focus on relevant placements.

“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,” the EC said. “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.”

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