Google, DoubleClick Cast As Net Neutrality Fight
By David A. Utter

Cleland's assessment of the merger, freely available from his Googleopoly website, contends the Federal Trade Commission likely has enough reasons to block Google's DoubleClick purchase.

Citing his experience criticizing a proposed Worldcom/Sprint merger, Cleland said he expected pushback from those in favor of a deal that in his analysis won't pass an evidence-driven antitrust test.

To illustrate, Cleland showed what a potential Google/DoubleClick rival would need to own in order to compete effectively:

To equal Google-DoubleClick's level of market concentration in the intermediary online advertising market, one single financial services company would have to own: • The top 15 Wall Street banks/asset managers; • ~60% of the hedge fund and private equity industries; • The New York and London Stock Exchanges; • The two leading providers of financial analytical tools: Bloomberg and Factset; • Two of the three national providers of credit profiles: Experian and Equifax; and • ~60% of the Federal Reserve's and U.S. Census Bureau's raw market and consumer data.

Click to Read More