From Microsoft Subnet editor Julie Bort: In all my years as a business journalist, I can’t remember a single instance where a merger was actually stopped by the government. Even in cases where a market was clearly and absolutely dominated by the resulting consolidation (Can anyone say “SBC,” er, “AT&T”?) But, I’m starting to wonder if Microsoft has enough clout to actually kill the Google/DoubleClick deal. I think I’m starting to root for Microsoft on this one. The Google/DoubleClick combo makes me nervous on the privacy front. Google and DoubleClick have an awful lot of data on anyone who uses the Internet. I use the Internet. A lot. Plus, I work for a magazine. The Google/DoubleClick combo is potentially lethal to my industry if Google can’t resist the temptation to use DoubleClick to prioritize serving up ads that benefit itself more than ads that benefit DoubleClick’s other clients. The EU has reportedly forced Google into concessions where it promises this will not happen. But maybe Microsoft is exerting enough pressure so that, for the first time in my personal memory, a merger won’t fly at all. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a group of Republican Representatives are calling for a hearing on the planned merger, getting their say in a public inquiry that began with a Senate committee hearing in September. (That hearing resulted in a whole lot of nothing much. In the end, the senators weakly more-or-less said they hoped the parties involved would do the right thing and make concessions to protect privacy.) Today’s WSJ story reports …
a dozen house members sent a letter to Bobby Rush,(a Democrat), chairman of the subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection, calling for a “rigorous examination” of privacy issues related to the planned merger, “as soon as practicable.”
Will the government actually put the kibosh on the merger itself? I’m guessing, no. Google will cross its heart and promise not to be evil with the stockpile of personal information it gets from the merger, and will promise not to abuse its position of power over display ads. And, if it lived up to that promise, would, no doubt, tick off its stockholders. But if the government could force Google into so many concessions that the stockholders think the $3.1 billion price tag isn’t worth it, then Microsoft wins. And maybe the rest of us would win, too.
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