New York
– Staffers at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will urge the agency to mount an
antitrust legal challenge to Google’s (NASD: GOOG) proposed $750 million acquisition of
mobile advertising firm AdMob, according to sourced reports from All Things D
and Bloomberg. "The federal government is looking for a way to discipline
Google in some way, because of larger concerns about its search power on the
Web," a source told All Things D.
"And this is where it looks like it
will try to show that concern."
Rivals including Microsoft, a range of public
interest groups, and even some lawmakers have lodged opposition to the deal and
are encouraging the FTC to step in.
"It feels like AdMob is going to
suffer collateral damage for a bigger fight going on about reining in
Google," another source told All Things D.
The reports indicated the FTC
could act as early as this week or next, filing a request for a preliminary
injunction to halt the deal.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2doaln3
(All Things D)
http://tinyurl.com/29k9pq5
(Bloomberg)
