It also spurred a frenzy of like--acquisitions by competitors Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL; each has been approved. The biggest of the rival deals was Microsoft's $6 billion
acquisition of aQuantive, which owns DoubleClick competitor AtlasDMT. Incidentally, Microsoft led the charge to stop the GoogleClick merger, rallying concerned privacy advocates and advertisers
alike.
As a result, activist groups urged the FTC to look into the broader advertising practices of companies that collect information about users' Web surfing habits. Firms like the Electronic Privacy Information Center worry that user information will be sold to marketers without regard to whether Web users want their surfing habits known. As for the Google merger, the privacy groups requested that the FTC either block or impose significant changes to the deal.