antitrust

European regulators are expected to approve Google's proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick in February despite circulation of a threat assessment report, according to a research note released Thursday by Stifel Nicolaus.

Google was given the go-ahead by U.S. regulators late last year, but it's still waiting for approval from the European Union.

Staff members in the competition department of the European Commission have prepared a draft "Statement of Objection" that assesses how the takeover could pose threats to competition. "It is a necessary, but not sufficient, step in the EC merger review … Read more

Microsoft will have to put up with another two years of court antitrust oversight, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

In her ruling, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly cited the length of time it has taken Microsoft to get its protocol licensing program up and running as the primary reason she is extending the consent decree, which was due to expire at the end of last year.

"The court's decision in this matter is based upon the extreme and unforeseen delay in the availability of complete, accurate, and useable technical documentation relating to the communications protocols," Kollar-Kotelly said. "… Read more

Here we go again. This time it was New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who ceremoniously launched an investigation into monopolistic practices by Intel.

"Our investigation is focused on determining whether Intel has improperly used monopoly power to exclude competitors or stifle innovation," Cuomo said in a statement.

The competitors in question are AMD, AMD, and of course, AMD.… Read more

Intel on Monday formally responded to the European Commission's allegations that the chip giant violated antitrust laws by abusing its dominant market position.

In addition to responding to the Commission's "statement of objections" that the antitrust agency filed in July, Intel will also seek an oral hearing on the matter, said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman.

Once that hearing concludes, the Commission has one of three paths it can take: request more information from the chipmaker, remove the objections, or levy fines and sanctions against the company.

The Commission is under no deadline to choose any … Read more

Federal Trade Commission regulators said Thursday that Google's controversial $3.1 billion merger proposal with DoubleClick can proceed, despite earlier complaints raised by competitors and privacy advocates.

FTC regulators have been reviewing the proposed merger for months for possible antitrust violations, after Google announced plans in April to acquire the online ad serving company.

"After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition" in the online advertising space, the commissioners wrote in their majority statement.

The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour issuing … Read more

At a Capitol Hill hearing in September, Microsoft's top lawyer skewered the proposed merger of Google and DoubleClick as a sure path to an online advertising monopoly.

"One company will become the overwhelming dominant gateway that connects the universe of online advertisers to the millions of websites that display ads," general counsel Brad Smith told a U.S. Senate antitrust panel in his prepared remarks.

Now Google is pointing to a new, $500 million ad deal between Redmond and Viacom on Wednesday as proof positive that there's plenty of competition in the online ad market--a not-so-thinly-veiled … Read more

In the seemingly waning days of the U.S. government's antitrust review of the Google-DoubleClick union, consumer groups are lodging a last-minute plea: don't forget about privacy.

That was the message during a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning hosted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy.

The directors of those groups, who predicted a decision by the Federal Trade Commission is "imminent," voiced concern that the FTC may overlook the potential privacy implications raised by the combined user massive data stores of the two prominent companies. (The two Washington-based groups, … Read more

Opera's antitrust complaint against Microsoft may be new, but Chairman William Raduchel has been a critic of Microsoft's tactics for some time.

Raduchel was in a top strategy role at Sun Microsystems back in the late 1990s, when that company filed its antitrust suit against Microsoft. And he had some choice things to say about Microsoft at the time, according to quotes rediscovered by Todd Bishop over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

In a 1999 book, High Noon, Raduchel is said to have likened Bill Gates to John Rockefeller, saying each had a sense that they had a "… Read more

Two privacy groups are asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to recuse herself from the agency's review of Google's proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick because her husband's law firm is advising DoubleClick on antitrust.

In addition, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras used to work at the law firm, called Jones Day, according to a complaint about the matter sent to the FTC on Wednesday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy.

Majoras' husband, John M. Majoras, is an equity partner with Jones Day and is in charge of … Read more