• Financial Times, Monday, April 16, 2007 10:45 AM

Having agreed to a $3.1 billion price tag (about $1 billion more than most estimates in the press) Google is setting out to buy ad-serving giant DoubleClick--subject to regulatory approval in both the U.S. and E.U. Now, Microsoft and the rest (because henceforth that's how everyone in the Web business should be addressed) are understandably angry, according to various reports.

Microsoft, in particular, could have used an acquisition like DoubleClick. Perpetually trying to build things on its own, the software giant continues to come up short when it comes to MSN and Web-based applications. In the wake of Google's proposed purchase, it's now Microsoft, ironically, leading the anti-trust charge, claiming that Google and DoubleClick would create "an advertising behemoth with the power to dictate terms to online publishers and service providers."

The proof, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith claims, is in the pudding: together, Google and DoubleClick account for "over 80 per cent of the ads delivered to Web site publishers, so their combination in a single company has big ramifications." Telecom giant AT&T, itself something of a behemoth, made a similar complaint: "To the extent that they are the broker of advertising for anything moving on the Internet, we would be forced to deal with Google on Google's terms," said Jim Cicconi, head of external and legislative affairs.

Read the whole story at Financial Times »