Despite the fact that the mobile advertising market is still young and fragmented, U.S. regulators apparently are concerned that Google’s proposed acquisition of AdMob could give it an unfair competitive advantage. Google got an inkling that the FTC might want to give the deal a second look shortly after it was announced. At the end of December, the company received a "second request" for
additional information from the agency, Paul Feng, group product
manager, wrote in Google’s Public Policy blog. Shortly thereafter, two consumer groups — Consumer Watchdog and the
Center for Digital Democracy — asked the Federal Trade Commission to block the deal, arguing that it would lessen competition and harm consumers, advertisers and application developers, among others.
Thu, Mar 11, 2010