- Google documents Iraqi museum treasures
- EU drops Qualcomm antitrust probe
- Barnes & Noble reports 2Q loss, cuts guidance
- Nokia to ax 220 R&D jobs in Japan
- Fox CEO wants US to join France on Internet piracy
- Newspaper circulation may be worse than it looks
- GE, Vivendi talks over NBC Universal stretch on
- B&N Nook sells out, too late for holiday orders
TECHNOLOGY NEWS FROM NYTIMES.COM
- Google Chief Announces Plan in Baghdad to Put Iraqi Artifacts Online
- Practical Traveler: Apps for the iPhone: A Traveler’s Companion, Pocket Size
- Video Game Review | Borderlands: The Thrill’s in the Gunplay, With Lots of Guns to Play With
- Seeking Deals, Holiday Fliers Get Early Start
- Group of Magazine Publishers Is Said to Be Building an Online Newsstand
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Foreign Demand Boosts US 7-Year Treasury Sale
- Black Friday: Can Banks Tap the Frenzy, Too?
- Oil Friday
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- For Many in US, It Will Be a Scaled-Down Holiday Season
Text Size 
Google won unconditional approval from the European Commission on Tuesday to buy rival Web advertiser DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, despite objections from rivals and privacy advocates.
 |
AP |
] has already won approval from United States antitrust authorities."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 Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said in a statement.
Google has by far the strongest position in Web searching in Europe, and the acquisition drew opposition from competitors such as Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
] and Yahoo [YHOO
Loading...
()
] .
The Commission also said the combination would lack the power to marginalize Google's competitors in "ad serving," which uses software to help advertisers target potential customers. At the same time, it helps advertisers sell blank space on their Websites.
Ad serving funnels the advertising of its clients down the chain to one of several ad networks, such as Google's AdSense, which work directly with Web sites.
RELATED LINKS
The Commission said that despite the concerns of competitors, the transaction would not close off access to rivals because of such alternatives as Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.
Privacy advocates complained that the deal would allow the two companies to combine their different methods of gathering information about the habits of Web surfers.
Print
Email
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
- Eric Schmidt pledges to create a virtual copy of the Iraq National Museum at Google’s expense.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- More shoppers than ever plan to comparison-shop this season. Who will benefit?
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- How can you get out of debt and back on the road to recovery? Follow these ten steps.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes