Google and Microsoft faced off today during a Senate judiciary antitrust subcommittee meeting that is reviewing Google’s proposed $3.1B acquisition of Doubleclick. Having already closed their $6B purchase of Aquantive, Microsoft is taking Google to task on antitrust and privacy concerns as both companies move to increase their share of the digital advertising market. It looks as if this is first of several challenges to the Google/Doubleclick deal as it will be subject to additional scrutiny by regulatory bodies in Australia and the European Union.
Microsoft’s opposition campaign has taken a public turn after months of reporting that the company was using their PR firm to build opposition to the Google deal resulting in the launch of the Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces petition.
While the internet titans duke it out in the courts we are confident the acquisitions in this space will benefit media buyers by providing greater network reach, stronger ad serving technology, improved analytics and a more efficient and automated means of buying and optimizing media across multiple platforms.
