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Canadian group opposes Google/DoubleClick merger |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Friday, 03 August 2007 |
 Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic at the University of
Ottawa (CIPPIC) is asking Canadian regulators, the Competition Commissioner, to be exact, to
review the Google-DoubleClick deal.
The
CIPPIC alleges (PDF) that the merger would prevent or significantly
impede competition in the market for online targeted advertising because of
Google's dominance in keyword search and DoubleClick's lead in the display ad
serving and behavioral targeting ad business.
CIPPIC Director Philippa Lawson said in a statement,
A Google-DoubleClick merger will greatly affect electronic commerce... Through the merger, Google-DoubleClick will gain unprecedented market power,
with which they can manipulate online advertising prices. Advertisers and Web
publishers will have no real choice but to choose Google's advertisement
platforms in order to remain visible in the e-commerce market. In response, a Google spokesman said in a statement
We are confident that this acquisition poses no risk to competition and respects
consumer privacy. Numerous independent analysts and academics have determined
after looking at this acquisition that the online advertising industry is a
dynamic and evolving space--as evidenced by a number of recent acquisitions--and
that rich competition in this industry will bring more relevant ads to consumers
and more choices for advertisers and website publishers. This seems a bit unfair to Google as in the recent months, many other companies have
also snapped up advertising agencies. Microsoft acquired aQuantive while Yahoo acquired Right Media and AOL took both ADTECH AG and TACODA .
Well, I guess the larger you are, the bigger the target you make.
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