Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick is a complicated issue, and a contentious one. The Antitrust Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee meets later this week to get a better look at the online advertising space, and as that approaches, both sides of this debate are getting testy.
Google v. Microsoft: DoubleClaws Come Out
We’ve Microsoft’s complaints from the start. In fact, they sort of started the whole thing, crying foul to federal regulators in the spring despite the goose-and-gander snickers. While we scoffed at the audacity of a Microsoft suddenly very consumed with antitrust concerns, we had no idea the company might actually go Astroturf in the waning hours to undermine it.
The “grassroots” effort didn’t go unnoticed at the Googleplex, no doubt, and Policy Counsel Pablo Chavez couldn’t hide the acrimony between the lines of the Google Public Policy Blog today when he reminded everyone:
We have also seen that the acquisition has been followed by significant investment, innovation, and competition in the online advertising world. Just yesterday, for example, Microsoft announced that it had added 20 new advertising clients after closing its acquisition of aQuantive, a DoubleClick competitor. We see this as yet more evidence that companies are competing in the online advertising space and the free market.
Bet that was fun for Pablo to point out, and there’ll most likely be lots more examples of competition in the online advertising space to come, at least by the time they appear on Capitol Hill.
One thing’s for certain, it’s hard to listen to either side, when both has such a vested interest in the other’s defeat, and Google can sure pour it on thick when they’re trying to accomplish something…the world we’ll see if Microsoft pours thicker.
