FTC Okays Google’s DoubleClick Buy

The FTC voted 4-1 to approve Google’s purchase of DoubleClick, despite months of lobbying against the deal on privacy and antitrust grounds. The commissioners concluded that the deal "is unlikely to substantially lessen competition,” PC World reports. The $3.1-billion deal has been fought tooth and nail by Microsoft and other competitors since the search-ads leader revealed its agreement to buy the display-ads leader in April.

The commission said last month it would review only antitrust and not privacy concerns in the matter. Yet today’s statement said the latter issues were “not unique” to these players. Google has said it won't close until gaining approval from the European Commission, the Journal adds, which has an April deadline for its review. (More Google stories.)