Bump in road to WWW ad domination
Congress is taking a closer look at Google's plan to buy DoubleClick. The $3.1 billion deal announced in April is awaiting approval from the FTC, but first it'll have to endure an investigation and hearings on Capitol Hill. Jeremy Hobson reports.
Sign outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
More on Science, Washington, DC
TEXT OF STORY
Lisa Napoli: Only on Wall Street can a 58 percent surge of revenue to close to $4 billion be "disappointing" and cause the stock to tank 7 percent. You see, the trouble is profit margins aren't as great as they have been for Google, because the company just keeps growing. Like its proposed buy-up of online ad giant DoubleClick. From Washington, Jeremy Hobson says that's causing Google another headache.
Jeremy Hobson: Congress is concerned about privacy and competition if Google gets DoubleClick. According to eMarketer.com, Google already controls more than a quarter of all online ad spending.
And it's a fast-growing industry, says eMarketer analyst David Hallerman.
David Hallerman: No other media has ever had ad spending grow by over 30 percent in five consecutive years, which is expected for the Internet from 2004 through 2008. Not even TV in its earliest days.
Google's growing power could mean privacy problems, says Congressman Bobby Rush. He's the Illinois Democrat calling for hearings on the DoubleClick buy. He call's Google's access to user information "scary."
Rep. Bobby Rush: There's something unnerving about that. I think the American public want to know when they are searching on the Internet, that their information is relatively safe.
In a written statement, Google said the acquisition is good for competition and privacy, and should be approved.
In Washington, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
