U.S. regulators approve Google's purchase of DoubleClick

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. anti-trust regulators approved on Thursday Google Inc.'s 3.1 billion-dollar purchase of DoubleClick Inc., clearing the way for what is called a formidable combination in the burgeoning online advertising sector.

After analyzing Google's purchase bid, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said "the companies are not direct competitors in any relevant antitrust market."

The FTC said it lacked the legal authority to block the deal on any grounds except on antitrust matters.

Google had argued that its online ad sales business did not compete with DoubleClick's ad-serving tools and therefore the purchase will not reduce competition.

But the purchase is awaiting approval by the European Commission which will scrutinize the transaction. The commission has set April 12 as a deadline to finish its review.

"The FTC's strong support sends a clear message: this acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said. "We hope that the European Commission will soon reach the same conclusion."

The deal, announced in April, will combine Google's leading position in online text ads with DoubleClick's ad-serving tools that help publishers place and track display ads.

Microsoft Corp., AT&T Inc. and other critics have argued the transaction would give Google a dominant share of the rapidly growing online advertising market.

Privacy advocates also strongly opposed the deal, saying the combined company will have access to a huge amount of data on individual Web-surfing habits.

To ease these concerns, the FTC also proposed a set of privacy guidelines for the online advertising industry, describing them as something that "clearly transcend" the Google-DoubleClick deal. It remains to be seen how such guidelines would be enforced.