Media Biz Google and Microsoft go to Washington «
September 27, 2007 Google and Microsoft go to Washingtonmsftgoog.jpgIt was a big day for Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) on Capitol Hill.
Google's chief legal officer David Drummond and Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith appeared as witnesses at a Senate hearing about Google's proposed merger with online ad placement firm DoubleClick on Thursday.
The hearing took place before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights and focused on what competitive and privacy risks the Google-DoubleClick merger would pose if it gets approved by the Federal Trade Commission. Google announced its plans to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in April.
But Google and Microsoft released the prepared remarks from their legal top dogs before the hearing. In his testimony, Google's Drummond said that the purchase of DoubleClick should not raise antitrust worries.
"Some have asked whether this acquisition raises competition concerns. We are confident—and numerous independent analysts have agreed—that our purchase of DoubleClick does not raise antitrust issues because of one simple fact: Google and DoubleClick are complementary businesses, and do not compete with each other. DoubleClick does not buy ads, sell ads, or buy or sell advertising space. All it does is provide the technology to enable advertisers and publishers to deliver ads once they have come to terms, and provide advertisers and publishers statistics relating to the ads," he said in the prepared remarks.
Drummond added that he felt DoubleClick is to Google what FedEx and UPS are to Amazon.com, namely that Google sells the ads, or books, and that DoubleClick delivers them. ...
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