• Reuters , Thursday, October 11, 2007 12:15 PM

Antitrust experts tell Reuters they expect Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick merger to soon be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates mergers and acquisitions, despite opposition from Google competitors Microsoft and Yahoo.

Both Mark Kovner, a lawyer, and consultant Steven Sunshine believe the acquisition will go through because advertising is still a huge market with many competitors. The DoubleClick acquisition may give Google a competitive advantage, but the combined company would hardly create a monopoly, they say. Sunshine adds that the deal should pass because it's "being reviewed by an administration that has been less aggressive than past administrations in challenging mergers."

Google's proposal to buy DoubleClick is one of several bold moves made recently by Web companies in the ad network space--a fact that underscores the existence of plenty of competition within the market. Even so, the FTC swiftly approved the deals involving AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo; it's been considering the Google matter since May.

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