- Omg! Positive tone boosts Yahoo celeb site to top
- BT offers staff time off in exchange for pay cut
- The old is new again at Saturday Evening Post
- Web retailers, states tussle over tax rules
- Companies pledge more openness about Web tracking
- Sony toils as Walkman hits 30th anniversary
- Joost exits consumer online video business
- 240,000 in-wall electronic timers recalled
|
CNBC'S MOST SHARED
- 'We're in the Middle of a Crash': Black Swan
- The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be the Next Crisis
- SEC May Reinstate Rules for Short-Selling Stocks
- Latvian Banker Taking Souls as Collateral
- Malaysia PM Speaks to CNBC
- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Will Resign
- The Worst Expected 2010 State Budget Gaps
- Cuddle Parties Heat Up
- Best Cities For New Grads
- Top Videos: From the Black Swan to the Bond King
- Property Tax Appeals Take Toll on Governments
- Obama Plan Would Trim Back Financial Powerhouses
- Schwarzenegger Signals Key Budget Concession
- Car Dealer Determined To Fight Chrysler Over Franchise
- For Banks, Wads of Cash and Loads of Trouble
- Biden: 'We Misread How Bad The Economy Was'
- The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be the Next Crisis
- For Australian Winemakers, More Turns Out to Be Less
- Top Videos: From the Black Swan to the Bond King
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.
 |
Paul Sakuma / 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
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes