Yesterday a report from the Wall Street Journal indicated that the FTC has assembled a litigation team that could be utilized in any lawsuit filed against Google. Now a new report from Reuters suggests that the FTC will indeed make a recommendation to block the Google AdMob acquisition.
Google announced the $750 million purchase of AdMob in early November — nearly five months ago. Since then, it has sat in regulatory purgatory as the FTC mulls whether the deal will result in an over-consolidation of advertising power. All the while, Apple’s been making the most of the AdMob acquisition downtime, launching its iAd platform tomorrow.
If the FTC’s staff does recommend that the government pursue litigation against Google, it would still require approval from the commission’s higher-ups (the commissioners and the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition especially). Regardless, it would at the very least delay the Google-AdMob deal for many more months.
Apple’s recent entry into the ad space could make all of the difference in whether the Google-AdMob deal is blocked or not. Google is very likely to point towards Apple’s iAd platform as a sign that the market will remain competitive, even after the acquisition. Whether regulators will agree is a question that only time will answer.
The result is that Apple has a head start on Google.
Reviews: Google
Tags: acquisition, admob, apple, FTC, Google, iAd, Quattro Wireless
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