Google’s proposed purchase of DoubleClick has drawn the scrutiny of privacy advocates, the Federal Trade Commission, and now a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.
Senate Prepares Grill For Google
Google will find out if the $580,000 spent on lobbying this year, and the addition of in-house lobbyists to complement the firms they employ in Washington, will have yielded a good return on investment.
The Washington Wire blog at the Wall Street Journal said Google will face the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights on September 27th for a 2 pm examination of the merger.
Washington Wire blogger John R. Wilke expects Microsoft and Yahoo to have participants in attendance to challenge Google’s attendees over the transaction. Microsoft in particular has stridently objected to a deal that could create an online ad monopoly, in their view.
Scott Cleland of Precursor is expected to attend, and present the case for blocking the merger on antitrust grounds. Thomas Lenard, acting president of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, will appear in support of Google’s proposal.
We noticed Google has a little something going on with DoubleClick already, related to their debut of Gadget Ads. One of the help questions related to the new product noted that Gadget Ads will run on DoubleClick’s DART network as well as sites participating in Google AdSense.
A Google spokesperson contacted for additional details about Gadget Ads could not comment further on DoubleClick’s role in participating with the new service.
We’re betting the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee won’t appreciate ‘no’ for an answer next week.
