Get three services for $100/moSenate plans hearing on Google-DoubleClick deal
As expected, the proposed union of Google and ad-tech firm DoubleClick is about to get some congressional scrutiny.
According to an aide, the U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee that deals with antitrust issues has scheduled a hearing for September 27 entitled "An Examination of the Google-DoubleClick Merger and the Online Advertising Industry: What Are the Risks for Competition and Privacy?"
A witness list hasn't yet been finalized but is likely to be released Thursday, the subcommittee aide said. But the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that lawyers from Google and its rivals Yahoo and Microsoft are likely to appear. Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is among the public interest groups that has voiced concern about the impact of the deal on consumer privacy, may also be on the list.
As CNET News.com reported earlier this summer, an unlikely alliance of former antitrust defendants like Microsoft and AT&T and public interest groups that traditionally antagonized them have come out against the deal. Google, for its part, has maintained the transaction would benefit consumers.
There was no immediate word on what the House of Representatives side is cooking up, but Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who leads a consumer protection subcommittee, has also taken an interest in scrutinizing the proposed deal, which is currently being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission.
- Tags:
-
google,
-
microsoft,
-
doubleclick,
-
merger,
-
congress
- Bookmark:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
I know MS pushed for this, and they better hope it doesn't bite them in their bloated arse. After all, to play catch up with Google, they overpaid for a smaller but very similar company.
If the Google/Double-click merger has anti-trust issues, then the MS/Aquantive deal certainly is.
Amusingly, MS paid nearly double for Aquantive then Google did for double click. That is the size of the fear MS has for Google.
How about that EU Anti-trust verdict.
EVERYTHING you do on the Internet is watched. If you goto an anonymous websites that make you "invisible" on the Internet, guess- what- they probably sell your info too..... I mean really--- how would you prove it was them???? The GOVERNMENT of the United States even spies on its citizens..... And when the US gov't can't get the legal right to spy on you, they just use the British M15(equiv. to the US FBI) intelligence agency which don't have to adhear to US spy law.... Get used to it. Don't do anything on the Internet that you wouldn't mind someone seeing.
Google's business can only survive if they are ethical, but Microsoft's business relies on it continually breaking the law and abusing consumers, so it can continue to force feed millions of people it's crappy virus ridden software.
So I think Google is the best company to own DoubleClick.