• Thomson Financial, Thursday, December 20, 2007 11:15 AM

By a 4-1 vote, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday finally approved Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of ad-serving giant DoubleClick, nearly eight months after the companies initially agreed to the deal. The commission decided that Google and DoubleClick "are not direct competitors in any relevant antitrust market."

Dissenting Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour issued a separate statement, saying she voted no "because I make alternate predictions about where this market is heading, and the transformative role the combined Google/DoubleClick will play if the proposed acquisition is consummated."

The first major hurdle now cleared, GoogleClick must await the verdict of European antitrust authorities before the merger can begin. The EU commission, which has a history of harshly scrutinizing large U.S. technology companies, is expected to rule on the matter in April.

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