FTC OKs Google-DoubleClick deal
The Federal Trade Commission this morning gave Google the OK to take over online ad company DoubleClick. Digital privacy advocates who fought the merger think this is very bad news. Lisa Napoli reports.
Sign outside Google headquarters (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
More on Marketing - Advertising
TEXT OF STORY
Doug Krizner: Google got a big holiday present this morning: The Federal Trade Commission green-lighted Google's takeover of online ad powerhouse DoubleClick. But as Marketplace's Lisa Napoli reports, privacy right advocates are reeling over this $3 billion deal.
Lisa Napoli: People like Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy have been fighting the merger since it was announced last April.
Chester says this Google-Doubleclick marriage means you can kiss your online privacy goodbye. He calls the unified company:
Jeff Chester: A data-mining colossus that will be able to track all of us wherever we go online, and then use that highly-detailed information to target us with all kinds of advertisements.
But in the end, the FTC said the deal wouldn't diminish competition in the growing online ad world.
The Google deal is still under the microscope in the European Union. Regulators there are going to take a closer look at it in January.
In Los Angeles, I'm Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.
