Washington – The Justice Department is considering blocking
Google’s (NASD: GOOG) planned $700 million acquisition of Massachusetts-based ITA Software,
a developer of software used to organize flight information by most major
airlines and travel distributors. Citing a person with knowledge of the matter,
The Washington Post reported that the department is examining whether the deal,
first announced in July, will give Google too much power in the travel search
market.
Under federal law, the government has 30 days to attempt to quash a deal
once a company has stopped cooperating with its information requests.
The Post
reported that the Justice Department is preparing its court case for when
Google closes the deal, which could happen at any time.
ITA’s software is used
by airlines such as American, Continental, Southwest, United, US Airways and
Virgin Atlantic, as well as online travel sites including Hotwire, Kayak,
Orbitz and TripAdvisor.
The company was founded by computer scientists from
MIT.
Related Links:
http://investor.google.com/releases/2010/0701.html
http://tinyurl.com/47w5tf4
(Washingto Post)
