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Google expects FTC to clear AdMob deal, citing new Apple iAd service
Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted his company's $750-million purchase of AdMob, a mobile advertising firm, would soon clear a Federal Trade Commission review.
Even as early reports indicate the FTC may challenge that deal on grounds it would hurt competition in the growing yet novel mobile advertising industry, Schmidt told reporters on Saturday the deal "should go through."
According to Schmidt, Apple's new venture is "evidence of a highly competitive market," not one that Google's proposed AdMob deal could hamper.
But it is unclear whether Apple's entry into the mobile advertising world will prove Google's point and sway FTC lawyers, who are reportedly preparing a litigation team in the event they recommend -- and the full commission approves -- a challenge to Google's AdMob deal.
Their claim would likely assert that Google's historic dominance of the online
advertisement market affords the company an unfair advantage in the mobile phone world, especially on new devices that run on its Android operating system.
Lawmakers too are growing concerned about the AdMob buy. Among the skeptics is Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), the chairman of his chamber's subcommittee that primarily handles anti-trust issues. While the senator stressed in a letter to the FTC that he had not yet made up his mind on the proposed deal, he nonetheless called for a rigorous investigation of its effects on the mobile marketplace.
"Allowing any one firm to dominate this market could result in higher prices for mobile advertising on the Internet and with respect to smart phone applications, and also could result in lower revenues realized by applications developers," Kohl wrote in the letter.
"The importance of this transaction is heightened because of the likely importance of the smart phone advertising market in the future," he added.
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