US antitrust regulators are taking a closer look at Google’s proposed $750 million (€522 m) purchase of mobile phone marketer AdMob. The Federal Trade Commission has sought more information about the deal this week, according to a post on Google's blog.
“As we said when we announced the deal, we don't see any regulatory issues with this deal, because the rapidly growing mobile advertising space is highly competitive with more than a dozen mobile ad networks,” Google product manager Paul Feng said in the post.
Feng confirmed that over the past few weeks the search giant had been in talks with the US Federal Trade Commission and prior to Christmas received a "second request," which means that the FTC is asking for more information so that they can continue to review the deal.
"We know that closer scrutiny has been one consequence of Google's success. While this means we won't be closing right away, we're confident that the FTC will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes. And we'll be working closely and cooperatively with them as they continue their review,” he added.
It is unclear how long the review process will take. While Admob generates modest revenues of $45 million to $60 million annually, regulators are concerned that its technology and advertising contacts would give Google an unfair advantage in the emerging mobile phone advertising space.
Meanwhile, Google hit another snag in its acquisition bid for On2 Technologies last week conceding it still hadn't collected enough shareholder support to close its deal. On2, adjourned a shareholder meeting to approve its $106 million sale to Google until February 17 in a effort to get necessary support.
Google agreed to buy On2 in August to boost YouTube's video technology.