Google has been allowed to complete its £1.55bn
acquisition of online advertising group DoubleClick after getting
the green light from European competition authorities.
The acquisition will allow Google to strengthen its
online ad business against the likes of
Yahoo and Microsoft.
US authorities cleared the acquisition three months ago. The
acquisition was originally announced almost a year ago.
The European Commission said the deal would be unlikely to have
any harmful effects on consumers.
Microsoft and others had objected to the deal on privacy
grounds, claiming Google's ability to combine its own data about
individuals' search engine requests with site visit data collected
by DoubleClick would be against consumers' interests.
But the European Commission was only interested in any
anti-trust considerations, and Google came through.
