FTC chairman won't recuse herself in Google deal
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U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)&#160;Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras won&#39;t recuse herself from considering the antitrust implications of&#160;Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, despite a request from two privacy groups that she do so.
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The U.S. administrative proceeding  looking into the merger of organic grocers Wild Oats and Whole  Foods Markets Inc.  has not been stopped despite a loss  in district court, but Federal Trade Commission Chairman  Deborah Majoras said on Tuesday the FTC rarely presses on after  losing a court fight.
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Google-DoubleClick probe just the beginning Two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission opened an anti-trust investigation into Googleâs proposed acquisition of online ad company DoubleClick, The Wall Street Journal reports that the FTC plans to examine deals by Microsoft and Yahoo! as well.â¦
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Just because Google's ad partners don't have a viable alternative, that doesn't mean the search giant should squeeze them.
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WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO  - Google Inc  so  dominates the online search and advertising market that  regulators are unlikely to challenge a merger of Microsoft Corp   and Yahoo , two antitrust experts said on  Friday.
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Google Inc. GOOG.O is unlikely to   make any major investments in original content, choosing   instead to keep its focus on Internet search, a top executive   from the Web powerhouse said on Tuesday.
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The chairman of the Senate's antitrust panel is uneasy about Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick and says it should be scrutinized very closely.
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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON  - U.S. regulators on Tuesday  did not give Google Inc. the green light it needs to price its  initial public offering, extending the wait for the Web search  giant's eagerly anticipated market debut.
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Two privacy groups are stepping up the pressure on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), saying the agency has an obligation to consider privacy concerns as it prepares to rule on the antitrust implications of&#160;Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.The executive directors of&#160;the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) repeated their call for the FTC to impose privacy conditions if it approves the merger. It appears that an FTC decision on the $3.1 billion acquisition is &quot;imminent,&quot; said Jeffrey Chester, CDD&#39;s executive director.FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in October suggested the FTC&#39;s review of the deal had to be about competition questions, not privacy, but Chester disagreed during a press conference on Tuesday. One of the FTC&#39;s main duties is to protect consumer privacy, and the merger of the number one search provider with the number one ad server raises serious privacy questions, he said.Google&#39;s contention that there are no major privacy concerns is &quot;absurd on the face of it,&quot; Chester said. DoubleClick says it serves 8 billion online ads and processes 964GB of Web server log files each day, he said.&quot;It would be a violation of trust, in effect abuse of their own role, in not addressing an issue of such concern as the data-collection apparatus within the ever-growing behemoth,&quot; Chester said. &quot;If they&#39;re really the agency to protect consumer privacy, they will act to protect privacy. If they fail to act to protect privacy, they have basically put up a flag to American consumers saying, &#39;We surrender your data.&#39;&quot;Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich repeated Google&#39;s position that the merger would have positive effects.&quot;This acquisition is good for consumers, advertisers and Web site publishers, and we continue to be confident that it will be approved,&quot; he said. &quot;I would also point out what the FTC itself has said about privacy not playing a role in its review of the deal.&quot;Last week, the two groups&#160;asked FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from the decision on the merger, saying her husband works for a law firm that is advising DoubleClick on the deal in the U.S.&#160;Majoras declined Monday to recuse herself, saying that her husband isn&#39;t directly involved in the DoubleClick deal and that the Jones Day law firm is advising the company only before European regulators.An FTC spokesman wasn&#39;t immediately available for comment.Chester and EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg repeated their calls for Majoras to recuse herself. Jones Day&#39;s Web site, until recently, said it was advising DoubleClick on the deal in the U.S. as well as Europe, they said.But the most important step the FTC can take is to impose privacy conditions on the merger, Rotenberg said. The case for a privacy review &quot;is very clear,&quot; he said.Chester agreed. &quot;Are they concerned about Americans&#39; privacy, or are they going to give Google a pass?&quot; he said.
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Despite calls from privacy groups that she recuse herself from an upcoming review of  Google's planned $3.1 billion buyout of DoubleClick, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras has rejected the idea.
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U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)&#160;Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras won&#39;t recuse herself from considering the antitrust implications of&#160;Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, despite a request from two privacy groups that she do so.Majoras, in a statement Friday, said&#160;the request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD)&#160;contains &quot;key factual errors.&quot; The two groups filed a petition Wednesday saying Majoras&#39; husband works for a law firm that is advising DoubleClick on the merger before U.S. and European regulators.The Web site for John Majoras&#39; law firm, Jones Day, at one point said it was representing DoubleClick &quot;on the international and U.S. antitrust and competition law aspects&quot; of the Google merger. But Platt Majoras said in her statement that Jones Day has never contacted the FTC about DoubleClick and that she didn&#39;t know it was representing DoubleClick in Europe until earlier this week.A second FTC commissioner whose wife also works for Jones Day also said he won&#39;t recuse himself.The EPIC and CDD petition also is incorrect when it says that John Majoras is an equity partner in Jones Day, Platt Majoras said. John Majoras switched his partnership from equity to nonequity status in January 2006, she said.&quot;I understand that as a fixed-participation partner, his compensation will not be increased or affected by changes in the firm&#8217;s income,&quot; Platt Majoras said.&quot;My husband does not represent any party in the Google-DoubleClick matter. He is in no way connected to the matter, nor are any of the parties to the matter otherwise currently his clients.&quot;EPIC and CDD, in a joint statement, said the FTC has &quot;failed utterly&quot; in its procedures to alert Platt Majoras about potential conflicts of interest. Despite Platt Majoras&#39; claims that she doesn&#39;t have a conflict, John Majoras is an antitrust expert at Jones Day, and one of his key responsibilities is business development in Washington, D.C., they said.Platt Majoras &quot;simply sets out the conclusion that the interests in her participation in this matter outweigh the potential conflict without providing any of the relevant factors that support that conclusion other than that she is the chairman of the commission,&quot; said the statement from EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg and CDD executive director Jeffrey Chester.Jones Day changed its Web site&#160;after the groups pointed out that it said the firm was representing DoubleClick on U.S. antitrust matters, wrote Rotenberg and Chester.&quot;The logical conclusion is that Jones Day ... sought to destroy the relevant evidence,&quot; Rotenberg and Chester wrote.A Jones Day spokesman didn&#39;t immediately have a comment when asked about the EPIC and CDD allegations.Google in April announced plans to acquire ad-serving giant DoubleClick in a $3.1 billion deal. That same month, EPIC, CDD and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) filed a petition asking the FTC to block the deal unless Google made significant changes to its privacy policy. The groups argued that the combined company would have unparalleled access to Web users&#39; personal information.FTC Commissioner William Kovacic also noted, in a Friday statement, that his wife, Kathryn Fenton, is a nonequity partner at Jones Day. The EPIC and CDD petition had not sought to have Kovacic recused.The FTC&#39;s three other commissioners, Pamela Jones Harbour, Jon Leibowitz and J. Thomas Rosch, issued a joint statement, saying that they agreed with the decisions of Platt Majoras and Kovacic not to recuse themselves.&quot;It is evident that these commissioners have at all times taken affirmative steps to conduct themselves in complete conformity with the ethical standards that apply to their positions,&quot; the three said.
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A U.S. District Court judge yesterday declined to address a petition by Google that asked the government to extend its antitrust oversight of Microsoft.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will not try to block Google&#39;s acquisition of online ad-serving vendor DoubleClick, the agency said Thursday.The commission voted 4-1 to approve the deal after an eight-month investigation. &quot;After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that&#160;Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick&#160;is unlikely to substantially lessen competition,&quot; the majority wrote in a statement.The commission downplayed&#160;concerns brought by some privacy groups. Privacy concerns are &quot;not unique to Google and DoubleClick,&quot; and &quot;extend to the entire online advertising marketplace,&quot; commissioners wrote.Google, the provider of the most widely used search engine, announced in April that it planned to acquire ad serving giant DoubleClick in a $3.1 billion deal.The commission examined several factors and concluded that the two companies are not direct competitors, the FTC said in a news release on Thursday. The agency found that competition in online ad-serving markets is vigorous and likely to increase.The agency will closely monitor the ad-serving space, however, commissioners wrote. &quot;The markets within the online advertising space continue to quickly evolve, and predicting their future course is not a simple task,&quot; the majority wrote. &quot;We want to be clear ... that we will closely watch these markets and, should Google engage in unlawful tying or other anticompetitive conduct, the commission intends to act quickly.&quot;Google, which faces a similar examination before the European Union, praised the FTC decision.&quot;The FTC&#39;s strong support sends a clear message: this acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers,&quot; Eric Schmidt, Google&#39;s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. &quot;We hope that the European Commission will soon reach the same conclusion, and we are confident that this deal will deliver more relevant ads for consumers, more choices for advertisers, and more opportunities for Web site publishers.&quot;Google will remain committed to user privacy, Schmidt added. &quot;For us, privacy does not begin or end with our purchase of DoubleClick,&quot; he said. &quot;We have been protecting our users&#39; privacy since our inception, and will continue to innovate in how we safeguard their information and maintain their trust.&quot;The same month that Google and DoubleClick announced the deal, three privacy groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG),&#160;filed a petition asking the FTC to block the deal&#160;unless Google made significant changes to its privacy policy. The groups argued that the combined company with have unparalleled access to Web users&#39; personal information.EPIC and the CDD didn&#39;t have an immediate reaction to the ruling.FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour voted against the deal, saying she disagreed with the majority&#39;s view on the direction of the ad-serving market.And Commissioner Jon Leibowitz, while voting with the majority, said the deal raised serious competition and privacy issues. Those issues, &quot;though in part brought to light by the deal, clearly transcend it,&quot; he wrote.In late May, Google announced that the FTC was examining the deal for potential antitrust problems. The FTC can rule that a merger raises antitrust issues, and the agency can recommend remedies. If the merging companies don&#39;t reach a settlement with the FTC, the agency can see an injunction against the merger in a U.S. court.Leibowitz, in November, said the agency was reviewing the case on antitrust, but not privacy, grounds. The privacy groups have argued, however, that the privacy issue is related to antitrust partly because of the competitive edge Google would get in targeting advertising to specific people.In December,&#160;EPIC and CDD filed a new complaint, asking FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from the case. Majoras&#39; husband works for a law firm that is advising DoubleClick, but DoubleClick and the FTC said that the Jones Day law firm hasn&#39;t represented the company before the FTC.
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(InfoWorld) - In its clearest statement of intent so far, Google said that it will compete in an upcoming wireless spectrum auction --Â if the government agrees to certain rules. On Friday, Google sent a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)Â chairman informing him that the company will commit a minimum of $4.6 billion toward the auction, but only if certain conditions are met. Google spelled out those conditions in an earlier filing with the FCC. The billion-dollar commitment could assure the FCC that if it does implement the conditions, it can expect to raise the amount of money it hopes to. "The odds are still against the FCC imposing the conditions Google seeks, but this significantly ups the ante," said Kevin Werbach, an assistant professor of legal studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and former counsel for new technology policy with the FCC. Google's proposals are controversial for existing mobile operators, which could decide not to participate in the auction if the rules don't suit them, resulting in potentially less income to the government. On Thursday, Verizon Wireless said that complying with Google's ideas would amount to corporate welfare and bad public policy. The $4.6 billion amount appears to be the figure that Google believes the FCC will require as a minimum price for the spectrum. In its letter to the FCC, Google wrote that it understood that a draft order from the commission had specified that figure. The FCC typically sets a minimum price to sell spectrum; if the minimum isn't met, the agency can cancel the auction. "We're putting consumers' interests first and putting our money where our principles are -- to the tune of $4.6 billion," Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google, wrote on the company's public policy blog. Google says that unless the FCC sets certain rules on the auction, existing large mobile operators will inevitably win the spectrum, and competition in the market will stagnate. In order to prevent that, Google is urging the commission to ensure that end-users can download any applications, services, or content they want. Consumers should also be able to buy a phone and use it on any network. In addition, Google says the winner of the spectrum should be required to allow third parties to resell services over the network on a wholesale basis. Some other groups, such as Frontline Wireless, a company backed by luminaries including former FCC chief Reed Hundt and former Netscape CEO James Barksdale, have proposals similar to Google's. While Google has been vocally urging the FCC to ensure that the spectrum can be used by any device and service, the company has until now hedged on questions about whether or not it plans to bid for the spectrum. The FCC auction for 700-MHz spectrum is expected to happen next year. The frequencies are considered prime for mobile communications because signals sent through them can travel far and can penetrate walls better than higher frequencies. Much of the similar spectrum is already spoken for, so this auction is considered a rare opportunity. In a perhaps related announcement, on Friday U.K., femtocell maker Ubiquisys said that Google has invested in the company. Femtocells are small base stations that can be used in homes or offices to improve mobile phone coverage. Ubiquisys' current products operate over 3G networks.
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Although he was alarmed by AOL's haphazard release of its subscribers' online search requests, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt said Wednesday the privacy concerns raised by that breach won't change his company's practice of storing the inquiries made by its users.
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Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said yesterday that she will not recuse herself from reviewing the proposed merger of Google and DoubleClick. Two privacy groups had asked her to step aside upon learning that her husband works for a law firm that represents DoubleClick.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rebuffed&#160;Google&#39;s accusations&#160;that an acquisition of Yahoo would be anticompetitive.The bid was made public Friday, prompting the response from Google over the weekend. Ballmer Monday at a news conference ceded ground to Microsoft&#39;s arch rival in order to justify his company&#39;s&#160;$44.6 billion cash-and-stock offer for Yahoo,&#160;which if accepted would fall under the scrutiny of U.S. and European regulators.&quot;Google&#39;s clearly got a dominant position,&quot; Ballmer said. &quot;They have about 75 percent of paid search worldwide. We think this enhances competition and anything else would be less good.&quot;A Google executive struck back at Microsoft on Sunday, charging that a combined Microsoft and Yahoo would control an overwhelming share of e-mail and instant-messaging accounts as well as portal traffic.David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google, further suggested that if Microsoft buys Yahoo it might try to unfairly use its dominance in those areas, just as it did in the PC market.Monday&#39;s news conference, in which Ballmer spoke with Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell, appeared to put further pressure on Yahoo&#39;s board to accept the offer, which at $31 a share represents a 62 percent premium over Yahoo&#39;s closing price last Thursday.&quot;We think it&#39;s an extremely competitive offer,&quot; Liddell said.In a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yahoo disclosed an e-mail sent on Friday by CEO Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock, non-executive chairman of Yahoo&#39;s board. &quot;First, we want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there&#39;s certainly no integration process under way,&quot; the e-mail read.Ballmer continued with a hard push as to how a deal with Yahoo will let Microsoft move faster in building out areas such as search, online services and online advertising.&quot;We are going to have to innovate like crazy,&quot; Ballmer said.But he also stressed how long it could take for a Yahoo deal to eventually benefit shareholders. Ballmer said he looks at whether investments will pay off five to 10 years down the line, but investors often want to see results in three years.&quot;Sometimes those investments look smart, sometimes it takes a while for them to pay off,&quot; Ballmer said.