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News Releases
No. 20/08
March 11, 2008
MERGERS: EUROPEAN COMMISSION CLEARS PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF DOUBLECLICK BY GOOGLE
The European Commission has cleared the proposed
acquisition of the online advertising technology company
DoubleClick by Google. The Commission’s in-depth
investigation, opened in November 2007, concluded that
the transaction would be unlikely to have harmful
effects on consumers, either in ad serving or in
intermediation in online advertising markets. The
Commission has therefore concluded that the transaction
would not significantly impede effective competition
within the
European Economic Area or a significant part
of it.
The Commission also analyzed the potential effects of
non-horizontal relationships between Google and
DoubleClick following concerns raised by third parties
in the course of the market investigation.
The Commission found that the merged entity would not
have the ability to engage in strategies aimed at
marginalizing Google's competitors, mainly because of
the presence of credible ad serving alternatives to
which customers (publishers/advertisers/ad networks) can
switch, in particular vertically integrated companies
such as Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL. The market
investigation also found that the merged entity would
not have the incentive to close off access for
competitors in the ad serving market, mainly because
such strategies would be unlikely to be profitable.
The Commission's decision to clear the proposed merger
is based exclusively on its appraisal under the
EU
Merger Regulation. It is without prejudice to the merged
entity's obligations under EU legislation in relation to
the protection of individuals and the protection of
privacy with regard to the processing of
personal data
and the EU Member States' implementing legislation.
More information on the case will be available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m94.html#m_4731
and
http://www.eurunion.org/newsweb/HotTopics.htm#Google/Doubleclick
.
Further Contact Information:
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
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